


The Unfinished Doll He found in the Attic

by endangeredwalrus



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Not Related, Dolls, Fluff, Ghosts, Horror, M/M, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Robots, Sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2018-03-30 23:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 29,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3955399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endangeredwalrus/pseuds/endangeredwalrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hideyoshi Nagachika moves into a new house with his guardian, Shuu Tsukiyama. Looking around the place, he finds a life sized male doll with white hair and unfinished features like a missing eye, ear and etc in the attic. It feels almost alive, but Hide shrugs it off. Then he starts seeing a white haired male around the house and sees that the doll has moved on its own.</p><p>Could that doll really be just a doll?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rewritten Version

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> January 18, 2016:  
> So the editing has now officially begun! For those who don't know, please take a look at my latest chapter as to why I re-writing/editing this story.

Tense was how Hide described his current feeling.

Even with the sky practically cloudless, something about Hide was still gloomy. Was it because of the sudden decision of his caretaker? Or was it because he was going to live in a completely different place? Those thoughts ran through his head as his caretaker drove the car over the hills and bumpy roads. This  _was_ away from the city after all.

"Hide-kun?" Tsukiyama looked up and into the rear view mirror, noticing the other's lack of response throughout the entire trip. "Hide-kun."

Looking back at the purple eyes gleaming through the reflection, his mind finally processed the situation and was snapped out of his thoughts. "Sorry, yeah?" he flashed a forced smile which looked more like misery than actual happiness to the older one. The smile didn't seem to convince the older one otherwise, as expressed in his not too loud but noticeable sigh. "Hide-kun, you've been really silent this whole time. What's the matter?"

 _"(No use trying to lie to him now, huh?)"_ Hide gave in and looked out the window, leaning his head against the glass. "I've just been...... thinking."

"Thinking about what?" the concern and confusion was obvious in Tsukiyama's tone. "Thinking about why we're suddenly off on a vacation?"

 _"Vacation."_  Hide hissed at the word, not caring that he wasn't the only one in the car. Honestly speaking, Hide wasn't even sure of what was bothering him and therefore adding even more confusion in his head. He started to think that it was either the fact that he's away from his comfortable home or just his teen angst kicking in.

"Hide-kun," Tsukiyama focused his eyes on the road, his grip around the steering wheel tightening a bit. "Please understand that I'm doing this because I'm worried about you. You seemed really stressed out and I thought that you know, maybe we could take some time off. Away from the city, I suppose." The grasslands and lack of houses became all the more visible to Hide. He felt his breath hitch when the anger/defensive instinct was about to kick in, but he stopped at the last minute to take in a deep breath to suppress it. Tsukiyama had a point after all.

"Okay...." Hide mumbled and sank lower into the backseat. The trip to their 'vacation home' seemed like hours and hours of Hide wallowing in his unexplained bitterness, but why did the grasslands and empty lots seem familiar to him?

Why did he feel 'at home' and strangely nostalgic to a place he thought was 'new' to him? 

* * *

 

 

“So this is where we’re staying Hide-kun.” Tsukiyama unloaded the car, holding a box filled with his expensive designer clothes. Hide groaned, cracking his eyes open from his short nap. He didn't realize that he had fallen asleep on the way. Despite reaching their destination, Hide still wasn’t as enthusiastic as the other but he decided to comply with the given situation. Opening his side of the door, he picked up his own box of regular clothes (he considered it 'regular' when he compared them to Tsukiyama's clothes) and turned to take his first look of their temporary home. 

The house was of medium size and definitely looked old. The color of the wood casing the outside was dotted and stained with dark brown and red, some planks actually chipping and cracking straight through the middle. The roof tiles looked like stone or cement slabs, some spaces lacking them. There was a front porch which seemed decent, plus a huge door which looked straight from the medieval era. Looking up at the second floor, the windows were stained the same way the wooden planks were. The windows were aligned correctly and there wasn't anything very unusual. The last thing that Hide noticed was this one window above the second floor windows. Seeing its position, he concluded that there must have been a third floor. The window was much bigger than the others and it seemed to be in the center of the whole house.

A soft smile curled onto Hide's lips as this same scenario reminded him of the first time Tsukiyama took Hide into his household years ago. It's not that the two were lovers, it's just that Hide had no one to look after him ever since his parents mysteriously went missing. Hide was just really thankful to Tsukiyama for he was kind enough to take Hide into his household and provide him with all his needs.

 

Looking at his surroundings this time, the house was practically in the middle of no where. There were no neighboring houses to keep them company at all, which gave a sightly eerie feel to the whole place. Come to think of it, it really looked like no one had lived in it for years. Then Hide remembered hearing from Tsukiyama on the way that there was someone who looked after the house, but he sadly passed. Was the name 'Yoshimura'? Hide shook his head. He couldn't remember. Though he did remember one thing: A simple yet confusing note from the man.

 

“Tsukiyama-san,” Hide walked slowly to the porch, trailing far behind his caretaker. “Why do you think that Yoshi-something guy wrote us a note that ‘Make a friend in your new house.’ note? We're the only ones living here."

“Who knows?” Tsukiyama shrugged, placing his box of clothes on the front porch. “What confuses me even more is that he wrote ‘friend’ instead of ‘friends’.”

Hide gave up thinking, deciding to continue unloading his things. After a long and tiresome moment of unloading their car full of belongings, Tsukiyama pulled the house key out from his pocket. You could tell by the way his hands curled around the old key that he was nervous and tense. Hide chose to keep his mouth shut to prevent adding more tension in the air. The key was inserted in the slot and twisted inside the huge, metal lock fit for the door. Tsukiyama pushed open the door, the creaking of the hinges making Hide's hands clench. He followed behind Tsukiyama as he stepped in the house.

The interior was beautiful in its own unique way.

Old wooden planks made up the floor, the walls made of what seemed like huge chunks of rock bound to each other with cement and two doorways leading to the kitchen ahead and the dining/living room on the left. On Hide's right, there was this staircase. The railing and area beneath it was made of stone and metal but the actual footing part was made of wood. Looking up, there was a beautiful chandelier covered with dust and cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. He couldn't see it from his current angle but he could see the top sections of doors from the second floor. The second floor had railings similar to the hand railings of the staircase. In the duration of time Hide took to look around, Tsukiyama had already gone up the stairs and explored the second floor.

"I'm taking the room closest to the stairs!" Tsukiyama's voice resounded from the top level, soon followed by the sound of a door creaking open. Hide decided that he should get his own room too. He took a bit more time climbing up the stairs, running his hand across the railings and feeling the cold against the heat of his fingers. He didn't realize that he'd been smiling at himself the whole time, a smile that never showed its true expression in years. At the last step, Hide could see a portion of the room Tsukiyama picked for himself through the opened door. A dark, cool-toned red with gold accents. Definitely suits Tsukiyama, Hide thought. He took one good look at the second floor. It was just a hallway of medium length and wooden floorboards. There were three doors lined up through the hallway: the first one being Tsukyama's room, the second bearing an old iron 'Bathroom' sign and the third which Hide assumed would be his room.

He reached his hand out and twisted the knob. With one push, the door opened and Hide got his first glimpse of his room. The room wasn't too big nor too small. It was the size Hide personally preferred and he thanked luck for giving him that room. The pale yellow wallpaper which decorated the room was rotting a bit, but Hide still admired the color nonetheless. The bed (which was yet again a pale yellow color) was big considering Hide's height but he shrugged it off, thinking that he would have more space to roll around on. On the left, there was a closet Hide thought was again too big for the amount of clothes he owned. Across the bed was an empty desk where he could use to study or do desk work and finally, on the right (beside the bed) was one window that lit up the entire room. Hide felt his heart flutter with happiness. Something about this room seemed so....  _Hide._ It was as if the room was made specifically for him.

One thing that caught Hide's attention was a rope that hung from the ceiling. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that there was a large, square indentation surrounding the area where the rope met the ceiling. He decided that he should ask Tsukiyama about that after he'd finish bringing up all his boxes. Excitedly bringing them all up to his room, he let out one large exhale and flopped onto his bed, the springs creaking as his body weight pressed against it.

“This could be a problem.” Hide said,shutting his eyes as he rolled around and listened to the springs squeaking. He was too immersed in the squeaking sounds that he failed to realize Tsukiyama standing at the doorway.

“Hide-kun.”

Hide shot up, eyes wide.

“Did you see that….?” Hide asked, feeling his cheeks tingle.

“Mm.” the purple head hummed in response.  “Hide-kun, why don’t we take a look at this?” Hide's eyes followed Tsukiyama as he walked towards the rope. Hide got to his feet and stood beside him. Without saying anything, Tsukiyama went ahead and pulled down the string that hung from the ceiling. Then from that action, a panel opened and a a ladder rolled straight down directly in front of the blonde male.

"Tsukiyama-san! Why didn't you tell me that you'd do that? I could have died!" Hide frowned and clenched his fists. That was one of the biggest scares he's ever experienced in a long time.

“But you’re not dead, aren’t you?” a sly grin on Tsukiyama’s face.

“Fuck you.” Hide glared, making his way in front of the ladder. “Let’s go.”

Tsukiyama nodded, following after the blonde going up the ladder. Hide immediately sneezed as his head poked up from the opening and breathed in the air of the dusty attic. It was a fairly big attic since there were no boxes flooding the room. One window in the far end of the room overlooking the front yard was all that lit up the room. Once he got up from the ladder, he scanned the room. There was pretty much nothing in the room upon first glance but Hide seemed to notice something by the window. Rather, a  _someone_.

“Ts-Tsukiyama-san! Look!” Hide freaked out and tried to make the purple head climb up the ladder faster.

“Hide-kun calm down!” Tsukiyama said, not even quickening his climbing pace.

“Tsukiyama-sannnnnnnnn!” Hide continued on, feeling his hands grow cold by the second as his eyes were glued to the figure across the room.

 “Hide-kun! Calm the fuck- ” Tsukiyama then saw what was across the room and pulled the blonde into a scared hug.

“Tsukiyama-san!” Hide tried to push the other off. "You're heavy!"

 “But I'm scared!” Tsukiyama said in a sad excuse of a defense.

 

_[Oh my... is that... you?]_

 

Hide furrowed his brows. "What did you say?" sending a questioning look to the purple head.

“Huh? I didn’t say anything Hide-kun.” Finally, Tsukiyama let go of the other and turned to face what Hide was so scared of. Walking slowly, Tsukiyama approached the figure while the blonde reluctantly followed after a few steps.

“Oh…” Tsukiyama relaxed as he neared the window. “It’s just a doll..... a human-sized doll.”

Tsukiyama  approached the doll calmly while Hide, on the other hand, seemed even more scared.

"He looks so real..." Tsukiyama looked closer, face inches away from the doll. "He's even sitting like a human on this big box...."

"Tsukiyama-san, please. It's creepy." Hide shivered, not even wanting to look at the doll and facing away.

Then he heard it.

 

_[It really is you.... both of.... you...]_

 

Hide stiffened. It was the same thing he heard earlier and the first time had already gotten him terrified.

"Tsukiyama-san, did you...... say anything?" Hide hoped that Tsukiyama was the one who spoke.

"No, I didn't say anything. What's wrong Hide-kun?" Tsukiyama turned to face the blonde, eyebrow quirked up in doubt. Hide breathed in a shaky breath.

"N-Nothing.... Just a bit... tired?" he thought of some random excuse though to his defense, he really  _was_ tired.

 "Let's call it a day, shall we? Tsukiyama walked towards Hide and rested a hand on his shoulder before letting go and walking towards the ladder. Before going completely  down the ladder, Hide poked his head up, looking at the doll from across the room.  He shook his head and looked down, smiling to himself and scoffing.

"Nah, it can't be the doll doing that."

 

_[Please don't doubt me again, Hide.]_

 

His face fell and quickly looked at the doll. Color drained from his face when he saw that the doll, from it's initial 'looking down at the floor' position, was now facing directly at him with its head cocking slightly to the side.

 

"No.... it can't be doing that..." Hide wasted no time to hurry down the ladder and shut the attic panel. 

 

Maybe the fatigue was getting to him, he thought.


	2. Rewritten Version

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feb. 8, 2016: Time to continue the editing process! :D

Hide was very jumpy after hearing those whispers and after seeing the doll. The slightest creak of anything would make him jump or even shout at the top of his lungs. He tried to forget what had happened up in the attic as they continued to unload and sort out their things. "You're thinking to much." Hide would repeat over and over again every time he would hear something that sent his heart racing. The thought that the entrance to the attic was in his room freaked him out and he began to worry if he could even sleep knowing that _it_ was there. The sky was dark and Hide decided to wash up before taking his night's rest (if ever he would get any).

Always looking behind him while he walked, he made his way to the bathroom in the first floor and shut the door silently. He exhaled deeply, leaning against the door and eyes darting here and there to inspect the place. Still. A plain sink with a mirror was on his left, a towel rack that was too old and rusty to use on the left. The tiles were white including an opaque white shower curtain to cover as you showered. The rings that held the curtains up were rusting at the point where the rings met the horizontal pole supporting the whole thing. He shut his eyes and breathed in the dull air. It wasn't dirty, nor was it something that you could call 'clean' but the smell was one that could indicate the age of the structure.  Hide clenched his fists around his change of clothes in his hands and opened his eyes. He hung his fresh clothes on the edge of the sink and walked towards the shower. He began to undress one garment at a time, tossing his clothes on the other side of the sink the best he could. 

"Does this still work?" Hide thought as he looked at the curving knob of the shower. At least Tsukiyama was kind enough to leave shampoo in the bathroom early in the day as Hide made use of it. The water was cold and made Hide shiver initially. He wanted it over with so he proceeded with shampooing his hair.

 

_[....de... here......]_

 

Hide slowed down his hands in his hair and heaved in a breath.  “Is anyone there?” No reply. "You're thinking too much again Hide..." he mumbled.

 

_[Why're..... you...]_

 

Hide began to act aggressive. His face started to lose its color. “Tsukiyama-san! Stop trying to scare me!”

 

_[Tsuki.... no....]_

 

“Tsukiyama-san!” Hide shut off the shower and opened the shower curtains to start scolding his guardian, but who he saw wasn't Tsukiyama.

There was a male with white hair and gray eyes, about the same height as him. He was wearing a black shirt with ripped up white, knee length shorts and black nails. His skin was pale, almost inhuman. The man was staring back with his head tilted slightly to the right. Melancholy and hopefulness were the dominant expressions in his eyes and that made Hide's heart sink for a moment.

 

_[Reme...... ber... me?]_

 

The man was gone after a blink and Hide's limbs were cold and numb with fear.

“What the fuck just happened.”

* * *

 

“Finally.” Hide lay in his bed, palms under his head and legs crossed after he squirmed around to get comfortable. The new bed sheets were nice and soft, he thought as his skin brushed against the fabric. He began to reflect on his first day in their new house. First, it was tiresome having to unload everything they had and to arrange all their things. They weren’t even finished arranging everything. Second, it was stressful adjusting to the new envionemt. Third……the man in the bathroom. It was strange. Hide frowned, noticing a resemblance with the man in the bathroom and the doll up in the attic. "They looked so similar. Is it really the doll?" His hands turned cold as the thought entered his mind. His eyes darted to the panel leading to the attic. A voice in the back of his head was calling him to the attic and it was drawing him closer and closer to the panel. He stood up and walked to the panel, trying to mentally talk himself out of doing so but failing. His hand reached up to tug on the string and the ladder fell down to its place. "Hide, what the fuck are you doing?" He talked to himself. He began to regret his decision once his skin touched the ladder.

“Why am I doing this…” Hide spoke to himself as he climbed up the ladder. The attic air forced a sneeze out of him accompanied with a cough. He pulled himself up and inspected the room once again.  Moonlight shined through the window, lighting up the room delicately. His eyes met the figure on the other side of the room and his legs began to move towards it. His legs moved on its own and his heart pounded as he started to question why he went up there in the first place. He was face to face with the doll and all the features of it were now very clear. He scanned it, trying to investigate every single detail there was to the doll.

The doll had white hair and pale skin, that was the first thing Hide noticed. The doll only had a right eye, the left one leaving an empty eye socket filled with black. Lips were thin and a faded pink color. Its left arm was mechanical while the right was almost human–like. Both of its legs were still surprisingly intact but what struck Hide the most was that the doll was wearing a black shirt, white ripped up shorts, had black nail polish on the human arm and its remaining eye was gray – just like the man he saw in the bathroom.

Hide gulped, feeling a strong presence from the doll. Even though the presence was strong, it felt peaceful and happy. Very close to 'familiar'. Hide knelt in front of the doll, looking up at the gray eye that was looking back at him. He frowned. "Why do I feel like I've met you before?" He stared into the eye and soon found himself laughing then frowning again. “Why am I talking to a doll?” Hide shook his head and stood up, starting to walk back to his room. Just when he was about to go down the ladder, he heard it again.

 

_[We... loved....]_

 

Hide’s head whipped back to the doll only to see that the doll's head wasn't limp and looking down at the ground.

The doll’s head was looking up at Hide.

He rushed to go down the ladder and closed the panel. He threw himself under the covers of his bed and shivered from fright. "You're thinking too much. You're thinking too much. You're thinking too much." His eyes welled up with tears the more he tried to convince himself that it was nothing. The sound of his own heavy breathing bounced off the blanket and his hot breath only made him sweat more profusely. He shut his eyes tightly with his hands grasping the blanket so tight that his knuckles went white.

“You're.... thinking too.... much.”

Then he felt a cooling breeze wash all over his skin. He couldn't help but exhale in some strange relief and felt something nuzzle against his neck, lightly humming. Hide's lips trembled for he had not felt this same sensation of someone's skin against him this way in what seemed like forever. It hit a soft spot in Hide and he found himself crying with happy tears instead of scared, frightful ones. “Love..." he muttered for no reason as his muscles began to relax. His mind slowed down and he found himself about to fall asleep.

 

_[Love...d]_

 

 

 


	3. Rewritten Version

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> March 17, 2016: Still continuing to edit ;) Now that school is finished, I'm now on summer break and I can spend more time editing this story :D

_“Will this hurt?” a voice asked, nervousness dominating his tone._

_The place looked like a dungeon, old and musty with green moss breeding in the corners and cobblestone floors and walls. A single light bulb hung from the center and a very antique looking treatment chair was placed directly underneath it. Sitting on the treatment chair was a white haired male. Even if his face wasn't very clear because of the current lighting, you could tell that he looked fairly young despite his current lack of hair color. Across the man was a table where another man, a blonde with a lab coat, stood in front of, tinkering with some medical equipment. His back and his hair was all that could be seen for now._

_“Don’t worry. You’ll be asleep when everything will happen.” the blonde in a lab coat said, holding an injection in the air to inspect it further. The injection glimmered in the light, making the other take in a deep breath. Then as the blonde turned around, a familiar aura in the air arose and the blonde's face could now be seen clearly. He flashed a gentle smile at nothing in particular but was felt like it was intended for someone._

_"Please remember me after this.” he whispered. The man chuckled and set his gaze on the white head._

_“I don't want him to forget his own grandfather.”_

 

 

“Grandfather!” Hide instinctively cried, eyes snapping open and sweat dripping from his face with blonde hair stuck to the sides of his jaw. He huffed wildly, heart thumping against his rib cage. The room was still dark with only a weak flickering beam of moonlight from the window. The sound of his own rabid actions slowly brought him back to his senses and his breath started to stabilize.“Grandfather…..” Hide whispered. “Grandfather?" Hide let his face fall into his palms, misery flowing into his heart and a painful smile crooked on his face. “That’s right…. I don’t have a family….”

_[Hide... grandfather.... name...]_

Eyes widened as Hide frantically turned his head looking for the source of the voice.

“Who’s there?” Hide called out in a shaky voice. Then, he heard a thud coming from overhead. A robber in the attic, Hide thought. He looked at the clock on the wall in front of him. 1:30 AM. He was now sure that it could be a robber so he got up and began searching his drawers for some kind of weapon.

“Weapon.... weapon....” Hide spoke to himself, chucking away the things that weren’t classified as a ‘weapon’. “I thought I had a box cutter somewhere here..."

Finally, there it was, a blade shining under the faint light of the moon.  He picked up the cutter and nibbled on his lip, looking up at the string that hung from the ceiling. Hesitantly, he pulled down on the string and watched the ladder fall, paving the way straight to the attic. He climbed up slowly with his ears perked for any unusual sounds. Peeking through the opening, he saw the moon-lit window but something felt off. He looked closer and noticed the missing figure that used to be sitting there.

“Oh my God…” Hide felt his arms and legs become heavy. “Please don’t tell me the doll is gone.”

He got up the ladder and once again got a sneeze forced out of him. “Damn this dust…” he brushed off the specks of dirt that were collecting on his shoulder. He gripped the cutter tight in his hands and began to walk towards the window where he last saw the doll. Ten more steps….. Nine… Eight… Seven…. Six. Hide scoffed, relaxing and laughing at himself. “I can’t believe I thought the doll disappeared when all it did was just fall down.” Indeed, the doll was on the floor, hopelessly fallen on its side . Well, it’s natural if things fall down with, gravity and stuff, he thought. Hide bent down, picking up the doll and placing it on the wooden box it was previously on.

“Damn you’re heavy for a doll.” Hide blurted out and wiped off the small beads of sweat from his forehead. He stared at the doll which stared down at the floor, limp. “C’mon, I’ll see if you have any cracks.” Hide squinted, trying to see through the darkness. He inspected the arms, legs and chest but saw no serious damage done. But as he touched the side of the doll’s head which had made contact with the floor he felt a wet touch on his fingertips. He frowned, face breaking in disgust. He moved his hand towards the window to see using the moonlight. His face drained of its color almost instantly.

“B…..Blood?” He slowly turned his head and looked at the doll. Out of curiosity and fear, Hide placed his two hands on each of the sides of the doll's head and gently turned its head for him to see it under the light. He was confused when he saw that there was no blood on the doll's head and frowned. 

“This is a really creepy doll. I should seriously burn this doll.” He spoke to himself. Just then, he felt a sharp pain cut through his arm. He yelped and let go of the doll. Looking down at his arm, a word was etched onto his arm.

_Don’t_

Hide’s eyes shot back at the doll and panicked. Streams of blood spilled from the empty eye socket of the doll and leaked onto the floor. What was strange was that the blood streamed into ordered lines rather than seeping into the cracks. It was only a matter of seconds before Hide realized that the blood was actually forming a sentence. He scrambled to get to his feet and ran straight for the ladder. The sight replayed over and over again in his mind.

_Burn me and you and your caretaker will die with me._


	4. Rewritten Version

****Breakfast was silent. An awkward and terrified aura radiating from Hide. Tsukiyama took notice that the blonde was wearing a long sleeved shirt (to hide last night's scars) which he had never worn before and had developed heavy and dark under eyes.

“Hide-kun.”

“Yes?!” he jumped in fright, dropping his spoon and fork into his food. Tsukiyama resisted the urge to laugh at the other's clumsiness, but soon gained his composure and thought about the real problem here.

“Did you sleep well last night?” Tsukiyama asked, eyebrows scrunched up together. To his surprise, Hide stiffened and looked even more petrified than the initial scare. “Did something happen last night?”

“N-Nothing… why do you ask that?” a forced smile on his face trying to show that he was okay. The purple head sighed.

“Hide, I was planning on throwing out that doll up there in the attic.”

“NO!” Hide stood up and placed his hands firmly on the table. “You can’t do that!”

Tsukiyama stared back at the blonde, eyes narrowing and inspecting him closely.

“Something happened last night, am I right?” he looked dead straight into Hide’s brown eyes. The other tried to look away, but the pressure in the air kept his gaze glued to his purple eyes. 

_[It.... wasn't me...]_

The voice echoed eerily and Hide couldn't help but crouch down and cover his ears. "STOP IT!" Hide shouted and shut his eyes. Tsukiyama stood up immediately and rushed to bend down at the blonde's side. "Hide-kun, what's wrong?"

_[He....did it....]_

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Hide's heart was racing and his breathing was rugged. Tears were also forming around the corners of his eyes. "LEAVE US ALONE!"

"Hide-kun!" Tsukiyama grabbed Hide's wrists and shook him hard to get his attention. Hide's eyes snapped open and he met the concerned face of his caretaker. His heart melted when he met his gaze and he couldn't help but crumble into sobs while burying his face into the older man's chest. "Tsukiyama-san...." Hide sniffed. "I'm... scared..." Tsukiyama let out a breath and wrapped his arms around the smaller figure. “Shh… It’s okay Hide-kun.” Tsukiyama hushed and rubbed circles on the other’s back with his thumb. “I’m here, I won’t leave you.” Hide’s body relaxed, his rapid breaths slowly stabilizing.  “I’m sorry Tsukiyama-san. I’m not feeling too well today.” Hide was able to pry himself away from his chest and looked up into the purple eyes. “Don’t worry Hide-kun, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Tsukiyama smiled softly at the blonde, making Hide smile too. Then, Hide was curious. “Tsukiyama-san?”

“Mm?”

“Has anything weird happened to you lately since we moved here for the summer?”

Tsukiyama frowned, tilting his head a bit to the left. “Not that I recall. Why?”

“Ah, nothing.” Some sort of feeling of disappointment hit Hide as he began to think that his mind was playing horrible tricks on him. “Just curious that’s all.”

Hide was about to stand up but then red streaks began to appear on the wall behind Tsukiyama. Hide then realized that it formed a sentence.

_Attic. Tonight._

The words disappeared once Hide blinked and left his heart racing.

  

* * *

 

 

Afternoon rolled in and the two decided to continue setting up the whole house. In the process of it all, there was one particular box that Tsukiyama refused to let Hide touch. Hide didn’t know why but he was always curious about the contents of the box. It was small and looked like it could hold things like letters and small trinkets. The old wooden frame was laced with gold swirls and had a keyhole in the center of an old gold plaque with no names whatsoever. Tsukiyama’s reason for him not touching it was that ‘He was not of age yet.’ Well Hide was 20 and Tsukiyama was 22. It wasn’t a huge age gap but Tsukiyama always treated the other like a delicate child even though he already surpassed the 18 year old mark. Hide wanted to see if he could know its contents by now,

 “Tsukiyama-san. I’m 20 years old and you’re saying that I’m not of age yet to look inside that box you always hid from me?” Hide asked, unboxing a box full of kitchenware.

“Well, you are of age.” Tsukiyama hummed to himself, Hide’s eyes lighting up. “But,” Tsukiyama emphasized. “It’s not the right time to tell you yet.” So close, Hide thought. “Fine.” Hide sighed, aching to know what was in that box. “When do you think you can tell me?”

“Mm…… maybe a couple of weeks or months. Depends if you’re prepared for it.”

“Psh. What’s so damaging about what’s in it?”

Tsukiyama paused, reluctant to say his response. “I… I don’t know.”

Hide became silent. He immediately sensed the aura around his caretaker and decided not to probe around the topic. The emotions that Hide could feel from the older man was one that made him remember an old painful memory.

Confusion. Hopelessness. Guilt.

 Memories of the day Hide was taken in by Tsukiyama flashed in his mind. The emotions he felt, the tears that were shed and the kindness that comforted him made him crack a bittersweet smile. A sinking feeling began welling up in Hide’s chest.

“Tsukiyama-san….” The blonde’s mouth felt dry. “Thank you… for taking care of me when no one did.” Tsukiyama turned around to face the blonde, his facial features softening and  and arms opening for a warm hug.

“You’re welcome Hide-kun.”

Hide closed his eyes, feeling the warmth that radiated from Tsukiyama’s chest. Opening his eyes, he was expecting to see an empty room with boxes all around, but there was an extra thing – or should I say  _person -_  in the set.

The white haired male was staring right at him, head tilted to the side with a confused – no – disappointed look on his face.

_[Lo….vers?]_

Hide’s eyes widened, burying his head into Tsukiyama to try and block his sight. Tsukiyama was confused at first but then assumed that it was Hide nuzzling his head into his chest. I saw nothing, Hide thought. He looked up over Tsukiyama’s shoulders, relieved to see that the white haired male wasn’t there anymore.

Hide felt something in his heart feel all warm and fuzzy in his heart. It was something that felt familiar. No, I’m here with Tsukiyama-san now, Hide thought as he rested his head on his caretaker’s shoulder. He felt Tsukiyama’s head rest on his own head, the older purring as they made contact. The older man’s arms tightened around the shorter male. Little did Hide know that Tsukiyama was not himself at the moment and was currently smiling with psychopathic intentions in his mind.

 

 

 


	5. Rewritten Version

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The events in this chapter (and probably the next couple of chapters) have been changed :0 But it's still somehow following the original story line.

_His body felt heavy and groggy. Everything was dark and the air was thick. Wood was creaking and shedding under Hide’s feet._

_“Why_ _am I here?”_   _Hide questioned, his body moving on its own as he climbed up what he thought was the ladder leading to the attic._

_It seemed late at night. 1:00 AM._ _Hide’s_ _thoughts were_ _focused on one thing: The doll in the attic. Each climb seemed to take forever to accomplish but added an extra push of hope and longing on him._ _Everything felt so real, too real to be a dream but Hide knew that he was asleep. At least he convinced himself that he was dreaming. Reaching the top of the ladder, Hide climbed up the last step and officially stood inside the attic. Once again, he did his usual sneeze ritual upon entering the attic. He could **feel** the sneeze. This is still a dream, Hide repeated in his head._ _Looking at the window, he could see the vague figure of that eerie doll leaning against the wall as it sat on a wooden box. His legs trudged forward, the lifeless figure drawing him closer and closer. Hide was now directly in front of the doll. The moonlight bounced of its haunting yet gentle features. Pale skin, lifeless eye and white hair._

_“The moon is really bright today.” Hide thought aloud while looking out the dust-covered window. Of course, he was_ _expecting no reply_. _For a moment he heard something creaking like old rusty cogwheels turning._ _Hide shrugged it off,_ _dismissing it as ‘part of a dream.’_ _but turning back at the doll, he tried to jump back. The doll that was_ _supposedly_ _looking forward had its head turned to face Hide._ _Hide felt his knees quiver as he desperately tried to move but his feet were somehow glued to his spot._

_“You….. were…. your head…..” Hide managed to stutter._

_The doll seemed to understand what the blond was saying but was confused why he reacted that way so the doll tilted its head slightly to react._ _Creaking noises emitted from the joint in his neck. Hide watched as the moved on its own. It looked sweet and innocent with its current body pose, putting aside the fact that it just moved by itself. The doll leaned its head back and looked at Hide as he waited for a response from the blond, patiently and politely._

_Hide was in shock, even for a dream. He couldn’t open his mouth to talk or scream anymore. The eye contact made his mouth clamp shut and his body still._ _The doll kept looking at him._ _Hide hasn’t done anything in response yet hasn’t he?_

_The doll lifted its right arm stiffly as it creaked with each blocky movement. The doll kept its arm up and Hide finally realized that it was trying to say hi._

_“H-Hi?” Hide forced out of his throat. The doll lowered its right arm and extended its left hand to Hide. Its left hand was under the moonlight and soon revealed a small writing on the pale surface. Hide looked up at the doll’s eye, then looked back at the hand. He straightened up and tried to see what was written on the doll’s hand._

_Ken Kaneki_

_December 20, 1924_

_Then everything became a blur._

 

Hide opened his eyes, first light stinging his brown orbs shut as he groaned in pain. “Must be morning.” Hide concluded once he heard the sound of birds chirping from outside. The first thing he noticed was that his bed was not soft. In fact, it was really hard and painful. There was no pillow for him to rest upon and there was no blanket to keep him warm. He tried to open his eyes slowly this time and the pain from the sudden light started to fade. His surroundings started to form in his mind and he realized that his room looked different. The ceiling was much higher than it originally was and the air smelled dusty. Hide sat up and rubbed his eyes, placing his vacant hand behind him for support. “Why is my bed so hard?” Hide said, opening his eyes and looking down. His eyebrows furrowed as he questioned why he was on the floor. He stared for quite a while, trying to piece things together.  He looked around and immediately got to his feet.

I’m in the attic, Hide thought. Outside the morning light just started to peek through the horizon. It was still early in the morning, he confirmed. He looked at the soles of his barefoot feet. Dust and dirt covered them as if he’d been walking that night. His palms followed a similar doing. “What happened? How did I get here?” He looked around the room and he stayed still when his gaze met the figure of the doll a few feet in front of him. He felt his heart race. He let his eyes run up and down the doll then noticed that the doll’s body language was very similar to the one in his supposed dream. He looked down at the doll’s left hand and breathed out shakily. The doll’s hand was still extended out to him like in the dream. He took a longer look at the hand and saw the exact words etched into the doll’s hand.

  _Ken Kaneki_

_December 20, 1924_

                     

“I don’t think I was dreaming then…” Hide stepped back before hearing a soft whisper behind him.

_[You weren’t dreaming.]_

Everything went black again and all Hide remembered was feeling extreme pain as if he fell straight to the ground.

 


	6. Rewritten Version

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> April 4, 2016: Rewritten on that date.

_[_ _Open it Hide.]_

_The voice echoed through the dark. A faint golden light started to glimmer a foot or two away from Hide. Hide reached his hand out to grasp it. It felt cold under his touch. It was the small box which Tsukiyama would hide from him. As he ran his fingertips across the lid, he felt warmth start to radiate from the keyhole giving him a nice calming sensation._

_[It’s special.]_

_Hide felt two warm hands cup his face. He looked up to see that it was Kaneki but he didn’t look like a doll. In fact, he was a complete form of the doll but with a certain mysterious sense of humanity in his eyes._

_[Find the key okay?]_

_Key? Why? Where?_

_[You can find it in the memories of your grandfather.]_

_Why…. Why is my family so important?! They were the ones who abandoned me in the first place! The only one who I would consider family would be Tsukiyama… I was never even able to meet my own grandfather since he’s not…. Alive anymore._

_Everything started to fade but before everything could disappear Hide heard one last whisper._

_[Hideyo… shi can set…. All of you… free.]_

  

“Kaneki!” Hide shot up from his bed, panting and sweating with his heart thumping against his ribs. He stared thoughtlessly at his surroundings. Why as he now in his bedroom when he thought that he was in the attic. His mind was in confusion. One minute he wakes up in the attic, the next he’s awake and panting in his bedroom. There was one constant thought in his head the entire time thought. Kaneki. “Hide-kun!” Tsukiyama disrupted Hide’s thoughts and barged in the room with his entire expression screaming worry.  “Are you alright? You were screaming in your room.”

“Screaming?”

“Yes.” Tsukiyama looked confused and distressed. “You kept on screaming something like ‘basement’ over and over again. Your voice changed too. You sounded like a completely different person.”

“Different person….” An image of Kaneki popped up in his head. “I’m fine, Tsukiyama-san. I just had a weird dream, that’s all.” Hide gave a reassuring smile to the purple head who in response nodded and stood up.

“Breakfast is ready by the way.” Tsukiyama said, before closing the door silently. Hide flopped back onto the bed, sighing.

“Man…what is happening….” He said to himself. He looked over at the string that hung from the ceiling where the doll was. Suddenly, he felt his palms and soles itching. He looked down at them and saw that the layer of dust was still there from his ‘dream.’ “Are you kidding?” He wanted to know more. He wanted to know why Kaneki is always bothering him with this box. He had to know why. He frowned, clenching his fists lightly. Then Hide was hit with a burning headache causing him to writhe in pain. While he was having the sudden headache, visions which seemed like flashbacks appeared in his midst.

 

_It was the attic. There were two people by the moonlit window at the end of the room._ _They both looked the same age as me, maybe slightly older. I identified one of them to be Kaneki. He looked like a human, not broken like the doll he saw in the attic. The other person was blond and wearing a lab coat. Wait, he looks familiar. I think I’ve seen him before…_

_“Promise we’ll stay together?”_

_“I promise Kaneki.”_

_“I love you, Hideyoshi.”_

_My eyes widened as I heard my – no – my grandfather’s name._

_“I love you too, Kaneki."_

_I had a better view of my grandfather. Now that I think of it, he looks exactly like me. He even shares the same name as me…_ _Did he just say ‘I love you too.’? Were they lovers?_

_The two of them looked out the window, hands both in an embrace as they watched the sun set._

_Kaneki looked at my grandfather, a smile on his face. He leaned forward as grandfather turned to face him. I watched them as they locked together in a kiss._

_A kiss?_

 

The headache dissolved and Hide straightened up, rubbing his temples to soothe the previous pain. He looked back at the string hanging from the ceiling. Then there was a thump from the ceiling. “Kaneki?” Hide said to himself softly as he got up from bed and jumped to get the string. He climbed up the ladder, feeling his nose tingle with a sneeze once again and looking at the motionless doll that laid on its side from a possible fall. Hide concluded that the thump could have been the sound of Kaneki falling on his side. “Kaneki!” Hide called out in a hopeful voice, but the doll stayed still, not reacting even one bit. “Kaneki?” Hide walked closer and reached to get Kaneki off the floor and placed him on the box. Hide sighed, inspecting Kaneki. He noticed that there were plenty of cracks on the right side of his face where he fell the first time. The side of his head also had a gaping hole from the fall. “Kaneki. We should seriously fix that hole in your he-“  Hide felt his hands go cold. “Why… is there…. A human brain?” Hide slowly backed up. “But you’re a doll… aren’t you?”

_[Are you sure I was a doll in the first place?]_


	7. Rewritten Version

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated on May 18, 2016.

The illusion of a live and bleeding brain only stayed there for a second before it quickly vanished. He let out a relieved breath when he saw that it was just a metallic brain, cold and dead. “Geez, that scared me.” He muttered under his breath. He inspected the doll carefully, thinking about how he resembled a human so well. Everything from the presence of the doll to the small details on its features seemed so real, almost exactly like a human. It got the blond thinking. “Kaneki….. I don’t understand what’s happening… why me?”

Hide hoped that he would somehow get a reply, but all he got was silence. Defeat. Hide turned his back to Kaneki and made his way to the ladder leading away from the attic. Just as he was about to go down, he heard something creak. He quickly looked back at Kaneki thinking that he might have moved but was disappointed when he saw that the doll did not move even a single inch. With one last look, Hide turned back towards the ladder. His heart skipped a beat. Kaneki was right in front of him. Hurt. Sadness.

[You really don’t remember?]

 Kaneki’s voice echoed into the surroundings. For the first time, Kaneki’s voice was loud and clear. The sound of the other’s voice seemed to linger at the back of Hide’s head and started to ring a small bell in his memories. His voice. He’s heard it before. He’s heard it somewhere in his far past.

[I know you remember, Hide. I know you wouldn’t forget your grandfather.]

I’m sorry Kaneki.

_“We can do this together, Hide.” Kaneki was standing in front of what looked like the shed behind the house, holding the hand of my grandfather._

_“Kaneki, you do know the risks of me doing this to you.” Grandfather looked at Kaneki, his usual happy expression switched with concern. He was wearing his usual lab coat and Kaneki was dressed in his usual black shirt and white knee length pants. Grandfather was carrying a box by the handle. Most likely a tool box. “Kaneki, if this fails, you might not… survive.”_

_“I know Hide, but,” Kaneki looked straight into Grandfather’s eyes. “If this is a success, this means that I’ll get to live with you. Forever.”_ _Forever?_ _Grandfather’s lips curled into a smirk. He cupped Kaneki’s cheek, Kaneki leaning into the touch._

_“After you, I’ll do it to myself too so we can be together, Kaneki.”_

_Kaneki raised a hand and held the one on his cheek._

_“Together... as-“_

_A white smog started to surround the two and their voices were becoming more and more unclear until nothing could be heard from the two men. Then one last ghastly whisper fought through the smog before all sound disappeared._

_“Dolls.”_

 

[Hide. Wake up.]

A soft voice awoke him from his sleep. His eyes cracked open, allowing the light to enter his mind. He propped himself up with his elbows then his hands and rubbed his eyes to wake him from the remaining fatigue. “Tsukiyama-san? Did you call?” Hide called out and opened his eyes. His eyebrows scrunched with confusion. The person he was looking at now, Tsukiyama? Why is Tsukiyama blonde? When did he own a white coat? Why does he look like… me?

The man smirked before vanishing abruptly. It took a while for Hide to realize that the man looked like his grandfather. He frowned. “I just imagined that. I’m still a bit tired.” Hide attempted to get more sleep by laying back down and lifting the blanket over his small figure. His efforts were interrupted when a knock resounded from the door.

“Hide-kun?” Tsukiyama said from the other side of the door. “Someone wants to see you downstairs.” Hide groaned and shuffled out of bed. He quickly (but sloppily) put on some fresh clothes and combed through his hair with two strokes. A sigh escaped his lips as he looked at his reflection. It’s not the best he’s looked, he acknowledged and thought that he could have done better but right now he looked passable. A plain white shirt with the pair of jeans and his black sneakers both from yesterday. Fashion wasn’t his main priority right now. It was his guest waiting downstairs. He walked over to the door and twisted the knob, pushing with minimal force and stepping out to walk down the stairs. He could hear Tsukiyama’s voice from the living room. The caretaker’s ‘morning voice’ was still very much evident and showed that he was woken up earlier than he used to. It was a bit early in the morning to his defense.

“Tsukiyama-san?” Hide walked into the living room and met the gaze of a tall man with white hair and a long white coat sitting down on the old couch silently. The man immediately stood up and bowed towards Hide. “Greetings, Hide. My name is Arima.”

Hide bowed down to other as a sign of his respect. “Hello Arima-san.” Hide straightened up and saw that Arima had taken a step forward and was now really close to Hide. The man towered over Hide as Arima put a hand on his head. “Wow, you’ve grown so much.” Hide shuddered at the contact of the other’s gloved hands. He took a step back to gain some personal space. Arima seemed to notice the blonde’s actions and quickly bowed again. “My apologies, Hide.” Hide gulped. This man was strange, he thought. “It’s okay. Let’s sit.” Hide motioned and sat on a cushioned chair across Arima. “So what brings you here?” Hide asked. He noticed that the man looked very expressionless and dull. His eyes lacked the shine of any emotion and his chest seemed to not move at all with the man’s breathing. Although, Arima’s voice was the one that showed clear expression.

“I came here to fix Kaneki.” Arima said in a way that sounded concerned. “Is he not broken?” Hide felt his heart jump at Arima’s statement. How did he know Kaneki? How did he know that he was broken? “Uh, Arima-san?” Hide quickly took a peek towards the kitchen to verify if Tsukiyama would come out or not. Once he saw that the caretaker wouldn’t go out soon, Hide continued. “How did you know about Kaneki?” Arima tilted his head to the side in confusion. His eyebrows moved ever so slightly downwards. “I know Kaneki because he was one of the people whom I was tasked to make sure that he was safe. Hideyoshi was the one who tasked me.”

“Hideyoshi?” Hide leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “How do you know my grandfather’s name? And how did you know where to find me?” Arima straightened up his shoulders and head. “Hideyoshi was the one who created me. I can track you because you are one of his creations too, just like me.”

“C-Creations?” the blonde sat back and eyed the other. “What do you mean by that?” Their conversation was interrupted when Tsukiyama came out of the kitchen with a tray of white tea cups and some small biscuits. “Sorry to make you wait, Kishou.” Tsukiyama said as he laid the tray down on the small table in front of him. Arima looked at Tsukiyama and smiled. “Thank you, Shu- I mean Tsukiyama.” Arima picked up one of the cups of tea and brought it up to his lips. Hide’s gaze was on the white haired man. There was something about him that was unnatural. Tracking? Creation? Should Hide even trust this guy? Arima took a sip of the tea and immediately his eyes lit up. He faced Tsukiyama who was now seated beside him and was holding his own cup of tea. “Tsukiyama, what flavor of tea is this? This tastes really good.” Tsukiyama smiled nervously, taken surprise by the sudden compliment.  “I-It’s an original recipe. I remember someone teaching me how to brew this but I can’t remember who.” Arima looked down at the cup and added, “This tastes exactly like the tea that a close friend brewed for me many years back.”

Hide picked up his own cup of tea and took a whiff of the aroma. Sweet. Gentle. Calm. The scent made a smile creep up on his face and he brought the edge of the cup to his lips. He tilted the cup and look a sip from the drink. A sharp pain ran through his head at that very moment.

 

_“I didn’t know that you were good at making tea, Hideyoshi.” A voice echoed through the darkness._

_“Well, I practiced a lot. Plus I wasn’t the only one who made this mix of ingredients. Shuu and I were the ones who came up with this recipe.”_

_“Wow, you two are really close right?”_

_There was a pause between Hideyoshi’s reply as if he was uncertain about something. “Yeah. We were really close, Kaneki.”_

“Hide-kun?” Tsukiyama’s voice woke him up from his trance. “Are you alright?” Hide looked up to see that both Tsukiyama and Arima were looking at him with concern. “Oh, I was j-just thinking about the taste of your tea. It’s really good, Tsukiyama-san.” Hide smiled then looked back down at his cup, not aware that his breathing was unsteady and heavy. He watched the cream colored liquid swish around with his own movements as the ripples moved in a trance-like motion. Hide thought, how close were my grandfather and Tsukiyama’s grandfather? Hide continued to sip from his tea, Arima noticing Hide’s body language. Tsukiyama looked at Arima, his grip on the tea cup tightening and hands starting to shake. His mind ran with many thoughts, thoughts that were not his own.

_We finally meet after so long, Kishou. It’s time for me to finish you once and for all._


	8. Rewritten Version

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Date updated: June 2, 2016

“Tsukiyama-san?” Hide noticed that Tsukiyama’s grip on his cup was trembling and shaky. Tsukiyama jumped a bit in surprise while Arima simply turned and looked at the caretaker. “Are you feeling alright?” Arima asked.  Tsukiyama smiled nervously and placed the cup down on the plate. “I’m fine. Just a bit weak for a moment.” Hide seemed to take that for an answer and proceeded to sip from his tea. Arima on the other hand twitched a brow but quickly went back to his normal expression before anyone could see. “So what brings you here, Kishou?” Arima put down his cup of tea, soon opening his mouth to react.

“I came here to fix Kane-“ Arima stopped then cleared his throat. “To fix the d-doll upstairs.” Hide glances at Arima while Tsukiyama simply nods. “Ah, you must be the owner.” Arima just hums in response, Hide watching the man’s stiff movements. They soon finish their tea and biscuits and Tsukiyama stands to excuse himself from the group. He picks up the tray of empty cups and plates.

“Excuse me Kishou, Hide-kun. Kishou, would you like me to lead you to the doll upstairs?” Tsukiyama offered. Hide’s eyes lit up as he saw that it was his chance to sneak some ‘question time’ with Arima.

“I-I’ll do it, Tsukiyama-san!” Hide quickly chimed in. Tsukiyama smiled and let out a soft chuckle at the younger’s enthusiasm. “Okay then. Hide-kun will be the one to lead you upstairs, Kishou.” With that, Tsukiyama excused himself once again and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Arima-san? Can we uhm, talk outside for a moment?” Hide asked hastily as he jumped up immediately, feet bouncing up and down in anticipation. Arima nodded and stood up. Hide made his way to the doorway, stopping and looking back to see if the taller male was still following. Hide had many questions in his head and he wanted to know more about Arima before anything else. 

The two sat on two wooden chairs situated on the front porch. The legs of the chairs seemed to be growing molds of some sort starting from where the legs met with the floor. Armrests were placed on either side of the chair and the chair was padded with nothing but hard wood. Hide felt himself melt on the seat, almost feeling comforted.

“So Arima-san.” Hide looked at the other, not sure where to start with his series of questions. “Tell me about yourself.”

“Well, my name is Arima Kishou and I was created in 1925. The one who created me was a man named Hideyoshi Nagachika, whom you refer to as ‘grandfather.’”

Hide scrunched his eyebrows. 1925? Wasn’t that a year after the year etched on Kaneki’s arm? “You were born on 1925? Isn’t that really long ago?”

“Well, I’m not exactly a living being.” Arima looked down at the floor and let out a huff.

“Not a living being? You mean, you’re not… human?” Hide tried to connect the words in his head. If Arima was playing a joke, well damn he had an interesting choice of words. “I… Don’t really understand what you mean.” The soft and shaky gaze of Hide met with Arima’s cold and intense ones, sending chills straight up the blonde’s spine.

Arima continued to look at Hide, the other getting nervous as time passed. Then finally, Arima broke eye contact as he looked down at his coat and raised his gloved hands to the top most button. It took a while for Hide to realize what Arima was doing but once it finally clicked, he felt his face get hot. Arima slowly unbuttoned his coat with his careful fingers, from top button down to the last one. “A-Arima-san, what are you d-doing?” Hide tried to avert his gaze. Arima did not respond but instead stood up and faced the blonde. He held the two flaps of his coat in his two hands before opening it and unveiling what was underneath.

Hide felt his ears burn when he saw Arima’s bare chest. He was relieved that Arima had at least a pair of pants to cover. At this point he really didn’t know what the taller male wanted to prove by doing this. “A-Arima-san, please… your coat…” Hide looked up into his eyes but then Arima reached to his left side with his right hand and tugged on the skin. Or was it skin? Suddenly, Arima’s entire chest opened like a door panel on hinges and revealed a collection of spinning cogs and other mechanical parts. Hide stared in disbelief. Arima’s internal organs are made of metal. He was a robot.

“Woah.” Hide was in awe and surprise. The spinning of the metal parts and the lack of human organs were something that Hide had never really seen before in a human, or at least in a human figure. Arima slowly shut his chest panel and began to button up his coat. “You’re a robot…” the taller male snickered and a small smirk creeped up his face. “I _did_ say that I wasn’t human, didn’t I?” Arima then finished buttoning his coat and took his seat, listening to the rest of Hide’s series of questions.

“My grandfather was the one who built you, right?”

“Indeed.” Arima looked up at the sky. “Hideyoshi was a brilliant inventor during his time. He took good care of me and Kaneki. I saw him as a ‘father’ more than anything.” The blonde noticed how Arima’s tone changed into a softer one once he started talking about his grandfather. He must’ve respected him a whole lot, Hide thought. “Arima-san, what’s your relationship with Kaneki? How did you know about him?”

“Kaneki was the one I was assigned to protect by Hideyoshi. I had to watch over him all the time, especially when Hideyoshi wasn’t around. Kaneki and I…” Arima looked down at his hands rested on his lap. “We were the only ones of our kind at the time. He was the only one whom I could relate to. We were the only robots during our time.”

“Robots? Kaneki was a robot?” Hide raised a brow and leaned forward ever so slightly. “Yes. He was able to move and speak but then some of his parts went missing and some were completely broken with no chance of repair. He could no longer function anymore after that.”

“Kaneki was a robot…” Hide thought deeply and remembered a previous flashback. The flashback where his grandfather locked lips with Kaneki. “Were my grandfather and Kaneki lovers?”

“Most likely. There was a way that Hideyoshi acted only around Kaneki and vice versa that I could describe as ‘romantic gestures.’” The description fit Hide’s criteria for ‘lovers.’ “Did you know anything about Kaneki’s past?”

“I’m sorry but I do not know anything. All I know for sure is that he was a robot and that I was tasked to protect him.”

“What did you need to protect Kaneki from?” Arima visibly stiffened when he heard that question and Hide swallowed hard. “I was tasked to protect Kaneki from Shuu.”

“Shuu?” Hide tilted his head in question. “My caretaker?”

“No, your caretaker’s grandfather. They share the same name, just like you and your fa- I mean _grandfather_.” The word grandfather felt so forced out of Ariima’s mouth. Now that he thought of it, Hide has never seen or met his grandfather even if he lived with Tsukiyama for a good portion of his life. “Why? What did he do?”

“From what I know and have observed, Shuu held a grudge against Hideyoshi. I don’t really know what the exact reason behind Shuu’s attitude was but he would get a bit… violent.”

 “Violent?” Arima looked at Hide with a different expression from before. The air Hide breathed in seemed thick and dark to take in. “He murdered Hideyoshi.”

Hide felt his blood run cold but Arima wasn’t finished with his sentence yet. “Shuu also kidnapped Kaneki and held him hostage.”

“But… Shuu… what happened to Shuu?”

“He…” Arima averted his gaze. “He killed himself.”

“What? Why?”

“I wonder.” He shook his head.

Then Hide remembered another question of his. “Arima-san, what did you mean by ‘creation’ when you were talking about me? Is that your special way to say that I’m his grandson?” A headache pierced his head and Hide cried in pain while dropping to his knees. A vision started to play before his eyes.

 

_The room was dark and the only thing that Hide could see was Arima and a metal casket of some sort. Arima had a hand placed on the opaque casket and he looked down at it with an unreadable expression. A voice echoed through the room. A voice that sounded too familiar to be from anyone else._

_“You will continue by bloodline by doing this, Arima. You will be able to help me do something which I’ve always wanted to do. You will be able to make my own and Kaneki’s child. I entrust this to you, for you are the only one who can do this. I won’t be around for long, so please take care of him. Please take care of Hide.”_

Hide opened his eyes and saw that he was kneeling and crying in pain on the floor. Heavy and ragged breaths escaped his lips. A pair of feet appeared in Hide’s sight and he looked up to see Arima stooping down to his eyelevel. He looked straight into Hide’s brown eyes with his own blank eyes. “Hide.” His voice was low and deep. “You saw _something_ didn’t you?” Hide didn’t need to ask what Arima meant by ‘something.’ Hide nodded shakily and Arima pulled back and took in a breath. “How long have you been seeing these?”

“E-Ever since I came here.” Hide answered softly and shakily.

“So it has begun.” Arima spoke to himself. “The Reminiscence has begun.”


	9. Rewritten Version

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> June 29, 2016: Date updated

“The Reminiscence.” Arima began. “It’s when you start seeing the memories in Hideyoshi’s previous life. He mentioned something about this happening but I didn’t think that it would start before I would meet you.”

“The Reminiscence…” Hide pondered. “How is it possible that I can see his past memories?”

“His memories are planted inside you. Now that your body has already developed, the hidden memories are finally surfacing. They can also be triggered by objects and surroundings.”

“Planted inside me? You mean like some kind of science experiment?” Arima looked at Hide and his mouth clamped tighter. His normal dull eyes were now showing hints of tension and it didn’t sit well with Hide. “That’s… Let’s save that story for some other time.” Arima took steps down the porch hurriedly and looked at Hide from over his shoulder. “Let’s go get the toolbox to fix Kaneki, shall we?”

The shed located behind the house was rotting and decaying but still managed to stand strong and keep its contents safe. It seemed a bit bigger than Hide had anticipated but he didn’t mind. Arima pushed the door open, old and musty creaking coming from its metal joints. Hide squinted his eyes and coughed. The taller male wasted no time in entering the house and exiting with what seemed like an old toolbox. The toolbox looked rusted in some areas but it was still in a relatively good state. It was lined with rusted gold edges and some scribbles too worn down to read anymore. The curve of the handle was bent a bit more than it should be, hinting the continuous action of lifting the box as the reason. He held it up for Hide to see. “Hide-kun, this was Hideyoshi’s toolbox when he was still alive.” Hide examined it and a scene began to unfold in front of him.

 

_Silver screws were scattered all over the floor. The sound of twisting wrenches and tired sighs emitted. Hideyoshi’s silhouette along with another were seen from what looked like the window in the attic. Hideyoshi smiled before bringing his working arm down._

_“Almost done, Kaneki.” He said before placing his wrench inside the old toolbox._

“He… he repaired Kaneki with that toolbox, didn’t he?” Hide looked up only to see Arima looking back at him. “Yes he did.” Arima turned to walk to the house. “I think it’s time we should head to the attic. Shall we?” Hide nodded then followed the taller man inside the house.

Hide led Arima to his room. Arima looked around and Hide observed the man as he pulled on the panel string that led to the attic. Arima broke the silence. “I remember this room.” Arima ran a hand along the wall. “This was Hideyoshi’s room.”

“This was his room?” Hide remembered the first time he moved in and he remembered thinking that the room was very suited to him. “That makes a lot more sense why I was so drawn to this room.” The panel leading to the attic was pulled down and Hide motioned Arima to approach him. The two climbed up the ladder, Hide going first. The dust in the attic forced a sneeze out of the blonde. Arima chuckled. “You’re just like Hideyoshi.” He began. “He’d always sneeze whenever he would come here.” Hide hummed in response, rubbing at his nose to recover from the sneeze. Hide pointed at the window. “Kaneki’s over there, Arima-san.”

Arima quickly brings his gaze to where Hide pointed and made his way there. Hide watched as the man moved towards the doll, gracefully. But too graceful to be real. Arima bows down to the doll and Hide can hear Arima mutter something like a greeting. He followed him and Arima turned. “Would you like to watch me fix Kaneki, Hide-kun?”

 “S-Sure.” Hide watched as Arima reached down to open the toolbox and rummage through things that Hide had no idea were for. It’s not that Hide knew how to fix dolls, well, he _can’t._ It was an opportunity to know more about Arima and Kaneki in Hide’s view. He shifted around uncomfortably, unsure of what to do. Arima had already begun his work but Hide stood watching. The other seemed to take notice of the blonde’s silence and stopped his work to face him. “Hide-kun, what’s wrong?”

“Uhm.” Hide felt his ears get hot. He fiddled with the hem of his shirt. “I… don’t actually know how to repair Kaneki. I don’t… know anything about this.” He looked down at his feet. To his surprise, Arima laughed. It was a laugh that sounded the most human out of all his laughs in the past day. He looked up and found that the robot’s eyes also had plenty of expression. Happiness and excitement. “Sit beside me, Hide-kun. I’ll teach you.” The blonde obeyed and sat beside the robot. Arima pointed out some features of Kaneki that were visible by the light coming from the window. “You can see that there are severe cracks on this side of his head. This entire side can be replaced so we need the spare part for this side only.” Arima searched through the toolbox and pulled out what seemed like the spare part. “You then detach the broken part of his head by unscrewing these screws over here with this wrench.” He grabbed a wrench from the toolbox and showed it to Hide. Hide’s eyebrows scrunched together as he tried to absorb the new information. The robot took notice, his lips curled in a soft smile. “I remember when Hideyoshi taught me how to repair Kaneki. Now _I’m_ the one teaching you. It’s strange how history can repeat itself in different forms.”

 “Repeat itself, huh?” Hide remembered the visions and dreams he’d been getting.

 

 

“I think Kaneki should be alright.” Arima lifted the flashlight and pointed it towards the now fixed doll. It had gotten dark and Hide mentioned that there were no lights in the attic that would work. Arima looked at his watch. “6 PM.” He said before looking at Hide. The blonde struggled to stand with his shaking legs. He was sweating bullets, shirt soaked and breath heavy. It surprised him how tired he was from repairing Kaneki. Hide got to his feet and took a good look at Kaneki.

“He’s…” Hide stepped forward to look closely at the porcelain looking skin. There were no more cracks and his skin was flawless. He still didn’t have one of his eyes and his mechanical arm still had no skin covering it. Nonetheless, Hide was basking in its mysterious appearance. “He’s perfect.” The words rolled out of his mouth instinctively and a soft smile curled his thin lips.

A shrill scream broke the silence. “S-Stop!” Hide immediately recognized that voice and his legs moved out of reflex. A hand around his wrist stopped him from running any further and Hide felt rage boil in him as he turned to face Arima. “Arima-san? Let go of me! I need to help Tsukiyama-san!” Arima’s grip was strong around Hide’s thin wrist and all his efforts to break from it seemed useless. “Hide-kun.” Arima looked straight at Hide, his eyes much colder than before. “That’s not your caretaker.”

“Are you insane?! Who else lives here and has that voice?!” Hide broke from the grasp and he made a run for the first floor. “Hide-kun, no!” the robot’s voice didn’t reach Hide’s ears.  As the blonde ran, the sound of pots rattling and furniture shifting were audible along with Tsukiyama’s screams of terror. Hide’s heart raced as he ran down the stairs. He practically charged through his bedroom door and shouted from above. “Tsukiyama-san!”

“H-Hide-kun!” the caretaker’s terror-filled voice came from the living room. Hide raced down the staircase. “Tsukiyama-sa-.” Hide felt his hands get cold when he saw Tsukiyama. Tsukiyama was curled against the far corner of the living room furthest from the kitchen. The purple haired male had his knees pushed up against his chest, shaky arms wrapped around them and eyes wide. A pool of blood collected around Tsukiyama’s right foot. A trail seemed to connect the pool of blood into the kitchen as if Tsukiyama was being dragged. “Tsu…kiyama-san.” Hide’s eyes met Tsukiyama’s and Hide immediately stooped down and embraced Tsukiyama in a warm and comforting hug. “Shh, it’s okay. It’s alright, Tsukiyama-san.” Hide whispered into the other’s ear. Tsukiyama burst into another fit of tears with his arms now around Hide. “H-Hide…kun… s-someone was… tried to… k-knife hit my leg… I t-tried to run…” He stuttered through the sobs. Hide had no intention of breaking the hug and neither did Tsukiyama.

Footsteps went down the staircase and Arima emerged. He stopped at the last step of the staircase and his grip on the handrail tightened. The scene in front of him was different in his eyes. He looked at the two on the floor and muttered something that only he could hear. “Just like that day.”

 

_Those wounds weren’t an accident. They were self-inflicted._

_The other wasn’t comforting him. He was trying to stop him from hurting himself further._

_It wasn’t Tsukiyama and Hide. It was Shuu and Hideyoshi._

 

It’s strange how history can repeat itself in different forms.

 

 


	10. Rewritten Version (Last chapter to be rewritten)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Date updated: Aug. 7, 2016

**Tsukiyama**

 

Grandfather visits me a lot. He always disappears right away. He just stays in the corner of the room, looking at us. I call him but then he doesn’t reply. I call him louder and my mother looks at me. She looked confused. “Shuu-kun, who are you talking to?” my mother asked me. I pointed to the corner. “Grandfather.” Mother looked at where I pointed and shook her head. “No one’s there, Shuu-kun.”

Grandfather is right there. Why can’t anyone else see him?

 

He talked to me for the first time. He keeps talking about a box. He wants me to take care of it and he doesn’t want me to leave it alone. Who is Hide? He keeps saying that name.

 

I have a friend now. His name is Hide. Grandfather led him here and now my family is taking care of him. Hide is nice.

Grandfather hit me and I bled. I called mother and she was horrified when she saw me bleeding. I told her that grandfather hit me. She didn’t believe me and said that I was just imagining things. But then Grandfather is standing right behind her. He looks mad. Please don’t hurt mother. She didn’t do anything wrong. Hide didn’t do anything wrong.

I’m having bad dreams again. I dream of Grandfather pointing at the box he gave me and he says things like “Don’t show Hide” and another thing that I don’t like. He says “Kill Hide.”

I feel bound to this box. I can’t look away. I don’t want this. Grandfather wanted this.

I can hear Grandfather’s voice in my head. He’s saying the same words again. “Don’t show Hide”. “Kill Hide.”

 

I can’t get rid of it. I tried to but then I saw him. I saw Grandfather and he looked like that time he hit me before. I don’t want him to hurt anyone. I don’t want to be the reason why people were hurt.

I asked mother about Grandfather. She said that she didn’t know much about him because he died many years before I was even born. That’s strange. Why could I see him when I was younger? What does he want with me?

I haven’t seen him in a while. In fact, it’s been two years or so. Even then, I feel like he’s still following me. I can still feel his presence but I just can’t see him or even interact with him. I’ve been trying to ignore the presence but at the end of the day it’s unavoidable. I feel like he’s inside me. As if he’s in my mind, or even a living part of me.

 

He wants me to bring Hide to this house. I know this place, my gut is telling me that I’ve been here before but why can’t I remember anything? I don’t want to hurt Hide-kun, I don’t want to bring him to the house. My body doesn’t feel like my own anymore. It’s like Grandfather is taking control. I don’t want to hurt Hide-kun. I don’t want Grandfather to hurt him.

 

                                               

 

_“Why is this box so important?” I looked up at Grandfather. He didn’t seem to like my question very much, judging by the way his eyebrows furrowed and his right arm raised up with his cane in hand. His arm swung and all I could feel was the sharp pain of the wood making contact with the left side of my forehead. I was knocked onto my side as I watched blood pour out from my head and onto the cold stone floor. I looked up only to see the same cane pointed straight at me and Grandfather’s eyes piercing into my own. The look in his eyes… they were not that of a regular person. I could feel his emotions. Obsession, insanity and desperation. His words remained in my head together with his emotions. They echoed around me._

_‘Fulfill your duty.’_

 

Tsukiyama woke up from his dream with a jolt. He noticed immediately that his heart was racing and that his skin was covered with a thin sheet of sweat. It was still early, he thought as he observed the sunlight coming out from his windw. It took a while for Tsukiyama to sync with his surroundings despite nothing major happening within his current bedroom. He sat up from his bed, his blanket crumpled on his lap. His eyes stung with tears as he buried his face in his hands. He let out a strangled cry. It’s been a while since he’s had that dream. It was one that kept coming back when he was younger. It was one that haunted him up until now. It was a nightmare. The dream felt too real, he thought. He hated it. It was a reminder for him that Grandfather could hurt him physically even if he was dead at the time. That dream actually happened in real life. After shedding some tears, he pulled back and felt something sticky and wet on his left palm. He looked down to see that on his pale and shivering hand was blood. A lot of blood.

 

He stood up to make his way to the bathroom, being super cautious not to wake up or be seen by Hide. Down the hallway and into the bathroom he went. He turned on the light and walked towards the sink with a mirror. He pulled his hair back and saw that there was a huge gash where Grandfather had hit him in his dream. His blood went cold as he washed off the blood, flinching at the initial pain. “You were just clumsy during your sleep. It was just a coincidence.” Tsukiyama tried to convince himself over and over. He turned off the faucet and patted his face dry with a towel nearby. He looked at the gash once more and was relieved to see that it was in an area that could easily be concealed by hair. Staring at his reflection, he let out a sigh. His heart skipped a beat. His reflection didn’t follow.

A lump formed in his throat and he then tried waving his hand to see if the reflection would follow.

It remained still.

The reflection suddenly smiled, eyebrows furrowed and a low chuckle escaped through its twisted grin.

 _“Fulfil your duty, Shuu-kun.”_ The reflection’s lips moved before it broke into a blood-curdling laugh. He didn’t stay to watch the reflection any longer so he scrambled out the room, not even bothering to turn the lights off.

The nightmare wasn’t just in his dreams anymore, it was now in his reality.

                                               

I haven’t been sleeping well ever since we moved here and Hide’s been noticing. He’s been asking me if I’m doing okay and I have no choice but to lie and say that I’m alright. I’m not alright. If I tell the truth, Grandfather might do something. Hide says that I have dark under eyes and that I seem pale. Truth is, I haven’t seen myself. I haven’t looked at a single mirror since _that_ incident.

A guest with the name of ‘Kishou Arima’ arrived. Now that I think of it, I’ve dreamt of Grandfather writing that name over and over again on his diary. I remember him filling up an entire page with that name, his hand-writing was shaky and nervous. He would sway back and fro muttering the name.

It was getting late so I decided to start preparing dinner for Hide-kun and Kishou in the kitchen. I noticed that while I was preparing the ingredients the air felt heavy. I wanted to open a window to let some fresh air in. Just as the thought came to mind there was a high pitched scratching sound. I didn’t really mind it at first but then I realized that the sound was coming from one of the nearby windows above the kitchen sink. Since I was planning to open the window, I thought why not go there now to open it and check the cause of the sound. So I went there and the sound of scratching stopped. I examined the window closely and saw multiple scratches on the window. “So this was the noise.” I thought aloud. I pressed my palms flat against the glass to push the pane open. I suspected that it must’ve been a bird clawing at the glass but then I saw a word formed amongst the messy scratches.

‘Shuu-kun’

That was when I began to think: I’m very sure that birds can’t write and I know that they don’t know my nickname. This must be some kind of joke, I thought. I pulled my hands back only to see that there were bloody handprints left on the glass where I had placed my hands earlier. I blinked and the scratches and hand marks disappeared. “What?” I was so confused. I really saw them. Where did they go? I tried to forget what happened and proceeded to push the window open. I turned and walked over to my chopping board opposite to the room and continued preparing dinner. I picked up the knife to chop up the carrots and cucumber, then I felt a hot breath against my left ear.

_‘Fulfil your duty, Shuu-kun.’_

I turned around right away and saw me- no, a much younger looking Grandfather staring back at me and holding a knife. I realized that the knife I was holding was not in my hands anymore and was now in the hands of Grandfather. His smile was the same as the reflection in the bathroom mirror a few days back.

 _‘Fulfil your duty, Shuu-kun.’_ He said once again, this time he took a step forward with the knife raised. “S-Stop!” I shouted and took a step back but I bumped into the kitchenware behind me and a knife nearby fell and slit my leg in the process. I screamed in pain and tried to run despite the huge gash on my leg. I felt something grab the ankle of my injured leg and fell to the floor. I turned and saw Grandfather grasping at it and trying to pull me back into the kitchen with one arm and the knife in the other. I thrashed around to try and loosen his grip on me and used all my strength to crawl away from him. Eventually I found myself in the corner of the living room. I curled up in the corner, frantically looking around for any evidence of Grandfather. No one. I saw that I left a bloody trail from the kitchen to the living room. My legs were up to my chest and my arms wrapped around them, shaking.

“Tsukiyama-san.” I heard Hide-kun’s sweet voice and the sound of his feet running down the stairs. My heart felt warm again when I saw him and melted into his hug. His skin, his scent, his voice. Everything about Hide-kun makes me calm and relaxed. I wrapped my own arms around him and found myself crying my eyes out. I was able to somehow stutter what had happened and he pulled me in tighter. I was relieved. I don’t want Hide-kun to leave me. I don’t want to lose him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm so sorry for the late update. School was really stressful and I didn't have the time to update :( But I hope you like this chapter!  
> And ehehe my birthday is coming up soon ;) (Cough Feb 6)

Arima approached the two and assisted Hide in carrying Tsukiyama up the stairs and into the caretaker’s room. As they laid the injured caretaker on his bed, Hide spoke. “I’ll get some water for you, Tsukiyama-san.” Tsukiyama nodded and let the blond do his thing. Arima counted softly before lifting Tsukiyama’s legs onto the bed. Tsukiyama flinched in pain and his face twisted ever so slightly but soon faded when Arima placed a pillow underneath his injured leg. “Tsukiyama-san, you you have any first aid kit?” Arima asked.

Tsukiyama pointed at his desk to his right. “First drawer on the left.” Arima wasted no time in getting the first aid kit and tended to Tsukiyama’s wounds quickly. After Tsukiyama was bandaged and tended to, Arima bowed to the other before turning his back to leave the room. Before Arima could reach his hand out and twist the doorknob to leave, a thick aura emerged from behind him and he remained- froze on the spot. A twisted voice, too real to be a spirit spoke from behind him and he knew whom that voice belonged to.

_‘It’s been a while, Arima.’_

Shuu. Arima recognized right away and spun around to look. He was met with Tsukiyama’s confused gaze and furrowed eyebrows. Judging by his expression, Tsukiyama had no idea what had just happened or acted as if nothing happened. “Kishou?” Tsukiyama called out. “Are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine.” Arima replied. The thick aura began to dissipate.

“Well, I was just saying that I really appreciate your care and assistance today. Thank you for taking care of me, Kishou.” Tsukiyama smiled softly. He really doesn’t remember, Arima thought and nodded in response before reaching out to open the door. As Arima opened the door, he saw Hide with a hand outstretched as if he was about to open the door too. Arima noticed that Hide had a glass of water in his other hand. Hide looked surprised and Arima began to wonder if Hide noticed the thick aura earlier. “I’ll wait downstairs.” Arima said to Hide before walking past him to go down the stairs.

Hide entered Tsukiyama’s room, careful not to make too much noise to disturb the other. “Hey, Tsukiyama-san.” Hide said with a smile and closed the door behind him softly. He looked at the other’s legs, relieved to see that they had already been taken care of. He decided to thank Arima later for his help. Tsukiyama seemed to light up when Hide entered the room. “Hide-kun.” Those words seemed to have more emotion in them than ever before and Hide handed the glass of water to his caretaker. Hide pulled out a chair from Tsukiyama’s desk and set it beside his bed to watch the older male. He watched as Tsukiyama took a sip of his water slowly and how his hands were still a bit shaky.

After the caretaker was finished with his water, Hide took it from his hands and placed it on his desk. “You should rest up, Tsukiyama-san.” Hide stood up and reached over the other to pull a blanket over his caretaker’s body. Hide made sure to be careful when he placed the blanket over his legs in fear of hurting him. Tsukiyama giggled a bit, earning a confused look from the other.

“Do you remember when you were younger,” Tsukiyama started. “I would always be the one tucking you into bed and you’d force me to stay with you until you fall asleep?” Hide thinks hard then laughs at the memory. “Yeah. I remember that I would cry whenever you’d try to leave when I’m not yet asleep, even if you needed to take a trip to the bathroom.”

“You always stressed me out especially when you’d cry your eyes out because I wasn’t there, you know.” Tsukiyama reached out and pinched Hide’s shoulder playfully. “H-Hey!” Hide jolted as the other simply laughed. The blond felt his cheeks warm up. He wanted to get revenge. Hide reached out while the other was distracted and lightly pinched the area where Tsukiyama was ticklish on his side. “O-Oi!” Now it was Tsukiyama’s turn to heat up. When Tsukiyama turned to face the shorter male, he couldn’t help but smile at his genuine laugh. “Revenge.” Hide snickered. The caretaker’s smile then began to fade as if he remembered something that he didn’t want to. His eyes fell a bit and Hide noticed right away. “Tsukiyama-san?”

“Mm?” Tsukiyama’s gaze came back up to meet Hide’s. “What’s wrong?” Hide asked. Tsukiyama put on a small smile and shook his head, “Oh, no it’s nothing, Hide-kun.” Deciding to let this go only once, Hide shakes it off and places a soft hand on his caretaker’s forehead. “It’s time to go to sleep, Tsukiyama-san.” The clock by their bedside had ‘8:10PM’ on it. It was still early to be going to sleep plus the two hadn’t had dinner yet. Tsukiyama didn’t seem to argue, Hide assumed that he had lost his appetite from the earlier events. Tsukiyama closed his eyes and mumbled. “Give me a goodnight kiss first.”

“What a baby.” Hide teases as he retracts his hand and bends down. “Goodnight Tsukiyama-san.” Hide says before planting a kiss on the other’s forehead. The moment his lips made contact with the other’s skin, a piercing pain shot through him and everything turned black.

* * *

 

All I can see is my old room back in the Tsukiyama household of my past. The room was quite dark with only a single bed lamp lighting up an area of around five to six feet. I can see two figures by the lamp. Who are they? I soon identify one of them; the one standing up beside the other figure in bed is Tsukiyama-san. I then identify the other figure as myself. My younger self. “Tsukiyama-sannn.” My mid-teen self whined. “Please don’t leave me yet.” Tsukiyama-san snickered softly and chuckled in disbelief. “Hide-kun, you’re already 16. You should be used to sleeping alone by now.”

“But I don’t want you to leave.” 16 year old me pouted. I laughed at myself as I remembered this memory.  I recalled this scene play out and felt nostalgic. Tsukiyama-san sighed and pulled out a chair and placed it beside my bed before sitting on it. “Alright, I’ll stay.” I saw as my small figure smiled and buried himself into the sheets before closing his eyes to drift off to sleep. The entire time, Tsukiyama-san was watching over me and waiting for me to fall asleep.

Looking back, I now feel a bit guilty for making him wait for me like this. It made me feel even worse now that I could see that he was quite sleepy himself. Time seemed to run a bit faster for a bit then it slowed down to regular speed. Tsukiyama-san lifted his arm and looked at his watch. “Fifteen minutes…” I heard him mutter to himself. He stood up silently and picked up the chair to return it to its previous position. This was when everything started to feel weird. I felt like I was watching someone else’s memory instead of my own this time. I didn’t remember anything like this in my own memory so it strengthened my theory of it being someone else’s memory. He moved to stand beside my sleeping figure again.

I couldn’t see him from my current position so I decided to move beside him. Knowing that this was a memory, I doubt that Tsukiyama-san could see me at all. I stood by his right side and leaned closer to see his face. My breath hitched when I saw that there were tears running down his face. What got me really confused was that he had a smile on his face. Not the ‘hurt’ kind of smile, but the smile that was genuinely happy.

“Goodnight, Hide-kun.” Tsukiyama-san whispered and bent down. I wasn’t expecting what he just did. His lips made contact with my forehead softly. His kiss lingered on my forehead for a bit, not too long but a bit longer than the usual. He pulled back just enough for the kiss to end but his breath was still blowing against my skin. The words came out of his mouth, caring and sincere.

“I love you.”

I felt my heart tighten. He’d always say ‘I love you’ to me but it was more out of brotherly intentions. This time, it felt more than that. It felt romantic. He pulled back completely now but his expression changed drastically. A dark aura surrounded his once peaceful self and seemed to match his emotions. This wasn’t him. This isn’t the Tsukiyama-san I know. This isn’t him.

His eyes were still looking down at my figure and I looked closer at his expression to figure out what exactly it was. His eyes, they weren’t his usual sweet look. This was of pure insanity and control. He spoke once more, this time his voice was deep and full of hatred.

“I loved you so much. But then, I know that you’d never love me the same way you loved _him._ ”

A dark chuckle emitted from his throat. Then to my horror, he turned to face me and looked into my eyes, sending a chill down my spine.

“You’re in _his_ body. But you don’t have his soul in you, am I right?” his maniacal laugh rang again. He knew I was there. He was _talking_ to me. This didn’t feel like a replayed memory anymore. This felt like a dream where both of us were conscious and in the same timeline. “Wh-What do you mean?” I asked out of fear. He stopped his laughter but his smile stayed.

“ _You_ are in Hideyoshi’s body. That isn’t your real body. You were the offspring of Hideyoshi and Kaneki. Hideyoshi needed a body to implant your DNA in, so who was still alive at that time?”

“At… that time?”

“Hah…hah…HAHAHAHAH THIS IS MOST IMPRESSIVE.” Tsukiyama-san burst into another laugh. “You didn’t know? I thought that the Reminiscence hit you full blast already.”

“N-No… it’s still… going.” I admitted. I felt myself start to back up. If this is a dream, I want this to end now. But then again, I want to know more. I’m in my grandfather’s body?

“Oh dearest _Hide-kun_ ,” His voice stung like poison. “Don’t you know? Kaneki was turned into a doll. By your _dearest grandfather._ ”

No. No. He’s lying.

“He took my only joy in life away from me. I wanted him back but I knew I couldn’t anymore. I took my dear Kaneki for myself but apparently, Hideyoshi had other plans.”

I don’t want to listen anymore but why am I still drawn?

“He made Arima originally to protect Kaneki and for him to live a good life. But I knew what to do. I wanted Hideyoshi to suffer. I wanted him to die knowing that Kaneki won’t rest in peace. I took a piece of Kaneki and hid it so that he won’t be able to move on and will be stuck to that doll figure Hideyoshi made. Hideyoshi knew this and it gave me great joy that he knew this. What I didn’t know was that he made something that could find the hidden piece of Kaneki for him to move on.

He made _you_ , Hide-kun. He sacrificed his body by putting it in that capsule like mechanism so that his body would de-age and implant your DNA in you. You have his body, his memories. That’s why you’re experiencing the Reminiscence. His memories are resurfacing with you in his body. _You_ were made to save Kaneki and to make him move on.”

This… this isn’t a lie. This doesn’t sound like a lie.

 “If you’re wondering why I didn’t kill you when I knew this, the answer is simple. I. Was. Murdered.”

“W-Who murdered you?” I didn’t want to know who.

“Arima.”

 

* * *

 

 

Hide inhaled sharply when he realized that he was back into reality. He gripped his chest and felt his heart hammer into his chest. Hide looked down to see if he woke up his caretaker, only to see that he was fast asleep with his chest heaving up and down softly. Hide didn’t notice a single tear sliding down the caretaker’s cheek.

“N-No…” Hide started to walk back. “This… this can’t be rea-“ Hide turned around to bolt out the door but clamped a hand over his mouth to prevent a shout from coming out. The atmosphere was thick and the Tsukiyama in Hide’s recent encounter a few seconds back was standing by the door, his back facing him.

“Tsuki-“ His stomach lurched when Tsukiyama’s neck, and only his neck, turned completely around to face him with a sickening sound of bones cracking. His eyes and mouth were sewn shut with black ‘x’ shaped stitches. Tsukiyama’s head tilted slightly, mocking a supposedly innocent gesture with a muffled sound of a laugh.

_Hello once again, Hide-kun._

One blink later, Tsukiyama disappeared. Hide took in a shaky breath to steady himself. The thick aura faded and Hide felt himself calm down. He turned around to check on his caretaker only to see someone else standing by his bed near the window. That same purple V-neck, white shorts that ended just above his knee, it was a perfect copy of Tsukiyama. He looked at the man but felt himself relax when he saw the look on his eyes. It was different from the one he saw in his dream. This man’s aura was completely opposite to that of the previous malicious and thick one, different from the one he just saw with the stitches on him.

Gentle. Caring. Loving. Hopeful.

“Hide-kun…” the man spoke up, a bittersweet smile formed on his face. “Please save Tsukiyama before you lose him forever.”

“Lose him?” Hide felt fear and worry. The man’s features softened, the aura around him turning sad but still kept its softness. “Lose himself to the other me. Lose himself to my insanity.” With one last blink, the man disappeared.

Hide huffed out a breath that was stuck in him. Then he spoke up.

“Shuu. Tsukiyama’s grandfather. You can’t be just one person.” Hide said to himself, thinking of a possible theory. Something in his head clicked. “No, you are two personalities living in one person. And Grandfather…” Hide felt tears prick his eyes and his knees started to feel weak until he collapsed to the ground, hands covering his face and catching his tears. “You aren’t my grandfather. You’re my father. I’m… I’m your son. Your and Kaneki’s… son.”

Happiness and grief filled him as he gripped his chest, _his body._ His grip was hard, trying to feel deeper into it.

This was not his body. This was his father’s. This was the closest he could get to his father. So close, yet so far.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello I am still alive. First of all, I am so sorry for the late update. School was really busy and I had absolutely no time to do anything else other than school work. But now that I'm on break, I can continue. I can say that right now we are around halfway through the story. So I hope you enjoy this chapter and see you in the next chapter!

_[It’s strange how history can repeat itself in different forms.]_

Hide’s hands ran cold. The back of his throat lurched. His body, the body he thought was always his, wasn’t at all his own. “Grandfather.” He repeated over and over again. “Father?” The name sounded so unnatural to him. He decided to stick with Grandfather to lessen the impact of the situation. He needed confirmation that all of what Tsukiyama’s grandfather, Shuu, said was true. But who could confirm? “Arima.” Hide whispered to himself. Then rage and betrayal filled him. Why did he lie about Shuu killing himself? Why did he murder? Hide needed answers now so he left the room without second thought.

Hide felt his heart pound as he went down the stairs, tears with mixed emotions started to form in his eyes. Arima was seen cleaning up the blood on the floor with paper towels. He stood up once he heard Hide’s footstep and wasted no time in asking. “Hide-kun, what’s wron-“

“Why. Why did you lie to me?”

Arima looks a bit taken aback in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Why did you lie about Shuu killing himself?” Hide’s voice cracked and he could no longer hide the anger in his voice. “Why did you kill him?”

“Hide-kun,” Arima’s tone changed slightly, almost unnoticeable. “I did it to protect you. I had no choice.”

 “You killed my caretaker’s grandfather. You _murdered_ someone. How am I supposed to trust you?” Hide shot an angry glare at the other but it proved to aggravate the taller male.

“ _Hide-kun._ ” The robot’s voice suddenly became deeper and his expression hardened into irritation and aggression. Hide quickly backed off and his initial anger quickly turned into surprise and fear. “I don’t expect you to like me or what I’ve done in the past. But this is my job. I was made specifically to protect you and Kaneki and for a reason.” Arima took a step forward and towered over the blond, looking down at him and asserting dominance. “You are the only hope to end all of this. All of what is happening right now. Do you want all of this to continue? Do you want to see your caretaker suffer like this?”

The moment Arima mentioned Tsukiyama, Hide was brought back to his senses and calmed himself down. Arima had a point and Hide knew that. At this point, Hide has no one else to go to for questions or assistance except for Arima.

“Can I just ask…” Hide whispered and Arima took a step back to listen properly without towering over Hide. “What happened… what was the situation at the time that forced you to kill him?”

“Shuu. He kidnapped Kaneki and threatened to destroy him. Remember that I was made to protect. Kaneki and I…” Arima’s tone softened as well as his expression and overall aura radiating around him. “He was also special to me. To see him threatened like that hurt me even more and gave me more fuel to protect. His life was on the line and it was my duty to protect him at all costs.”

“Okay.” Hide responded softly. Once he collected his thoughts again, he decided to tell Arima about what had just happened upstairs. “Arima-san, a memory played upstairs.” Arima’s attention perked up. “It was a memory but I saw it in the point of view of Tsukiyama-san. Then suddenly, I was talking to Tsukiyama’s grandfather.”

Arima’s eyes widened. “Talking to him? What did he say?”

“The murder was one of them.” Hide pointed out then continued again. “Then he said that I’m in Grandfather’s body. Is… is that true?” Hide looked up at Arima for a response. The weight of the question as well as the anticipation was heavy in Hide.

Arima nodded. “Yes. It is true.”

Hide’s eyes stung with tears but he kept his head high with the rest of his strength. “And I was made to find Kaneki’s last part to complete him?”

“Yes.”

“I’m guessing that the last part of Kaneki is inside the box of Tsukiyama-san?”

Arima pauses first as if he was thinking. “Most likely.

Hide shakes his head and scrunches his eyebrows. “I don’t even know where the key is, Arima-san. I don’t know where to start looking, heck, I don’t even know if the key is within my reach. But then, I could always try to break the box.”

“That wouldn’t work.” Arima said right away. “That box was designed by Hideyoshi to be indestructible. I saw it with my own eyes that you cannot destroy when he demonstrated it to me.”

“Damnit.” Hide cursed to himself. He tapped his foot as he thought of ways to access the box. “I could try asking Tsukiyama-san for the box and the key but he’s never agreed to show it to me.”

“We could always try again.” Arima suggested. “He doesn’t really have a choice anymore to keep hiding the box. Let’s ask him once he’s awake, shall we?”

“Yeah. Oh, I remember having a dream of some sort where I remember hearing that I can find the key through the Reminiscence.”

“Then that’s already a big indicator that the key is within reach.” Arima smiles at Hide and Hide feels relief.

“Okay then. In the meantime, we should go look for more things that can trigger another memory.” Hide wonders. “Arima-san, do you know anything about a basement within this house?”  

“Yes I do.” The moment Arima said that, Hide’s eyes lit up, eager for an answer. “The entrance is in the shed from earlier with the toolbox. The basement is where the capsule you were in is and where I was made, as well as where Kaneki was made too.”

“Can you show me where it is please?”

“Sure.” Arima tossed the paper towels coated with blood in a nearby trashcan before asking Hide a question. “Do you have a flashlight? We’ll need it when we go down. We’ll need two.” Hide nodded, disappearing up the stairs and coming back down with two relatively big flashlights. He handed one to Arima and soon after, Arima leads them both out of the house and in front of the shed. Arima opens the door to the shed and turns on his flashlight as he enters. The current daylight wasn’t too dark but definitely getting darker by the moment. Hide turns on his flashlight and shines the light inside the shed. He can easily identify Arima because of how the light from his flashlight reflects strongly off of his big white coat. Arima went further inside the shed. The shed itself wasn’t too big but it was big enough to fit at most two sets of machinery.

Arima bent down and pulled at a wooden hatch. It creaked with age and the sound of the wooden hatch hitting the floor was a signal for Hide to get in the shed. The smell was musty and full of dust. A sneeze was forced out of Hide, Hide soon cursing silently under his breath at the thought of the rest of the way being super dusty. “The basement is further down.” Arima said as he went down the hatch. Hide watched Arima go down and saw that the ladder of the hatch wasn’t very high. The space between the opening of the hatch and the bottom of the ladder was about seven to eight feet. Once Arima was off the ladder, Hide followed. Hide turned around and met a small hallway with wooden double doors. One step forward and a sudden strong breeze blew past Hide.

 

_It was the same hallway Hide was in. The sound of footsteps clicking against the hard stone floor was all that could be heard. The sound of the footsteps got louder and louder until the source of the sound was identified. Hideyoshi was walking towards the double doors. He was in a white laboratory robe. He reached the double doors and extended a hand out to push one open. He spoke up once the door opened slightly._

_“Hello Arima.”_

Hide opened his eyes and saw that Arima was looking at him with worried eyes. “Did a memory play?”  Arima asked. “Yeah… Grandfather was walking through his hallway and he said hello to you.” Arima smiled softly and looked forwards towards the doors. “He did. I remember when he did that here. It was when I was first made and Hideoyshi would come back to check on me all the time.” Arima continued walking forward with Hide trailing behind him. Arima pushed open the doors and the creak it emitted sent tingles down Hide’s spine. They both enter the room with both flashlights on and searching all over the room.

The floor and walls were made of white tiles which were now covered in a sheet of dust and grime from age. On the right was doctor’s chair and multiple tables with bottles and equipment of some sort. The middle of the room was open and free. On the left side of the room, there was something quite large covered with a white cloth which has now turned brown and slightly rotten in the edges and hem of the cloth. That was what caught Hide’s attention and what drew him in closer.

He walks closer towards the white sheet and swallows hard. His fingers run over the fabric lightly, trying to get himself familiar with the feeling. With one hard yank, Hide pulls the sheet off and sees for the first time, the capsule he was made in. One look and a piercing headache falls upon Hide.

_Arima was walking towards the capsule with a body in his arms. He looked sad, completely shattered emotions. The body Arima was carrying was then identified as Hideyoshi’s lifeless figure. His shirt bloody from what seemed to be a stab straight to the heart, his eyes closed softly, his features hauntingly pale. As Arima laid Hideyoshi inside the capsule, a voice echoed through._

_“He’ll be able to find the key, I know he will.”_

_Arima placed Hideyoshi inside the capsule and shut it, making sure that it was sealed properly. After the capsule was shut, Arima stepped back but get out a loud grunt. He clutched his chest and he was breathing heavily._

_“No… I can’t shut down now…” Arima was now on his knees struggling to stay up. “Hide… I can’t leave him alone! Who will care… for him?”_

_Then Arima collapsed._

Hide opened his eyes and breathed heavily. Why did Arima collapse? But there was another detail that Hide failed to confirm: how did Hide, at an age where he cannot be taken care of, make it to Tsukiyama’s house? Who brought him there if everyone was dead or unconscious? “Arima-san?” Hide called out, only to turn around and see that Arima was already by his side. “Hm?” Arima replied. Hide shook off Arima’s foresight. “Arima-san, you collapsed after you put me inside the capsule?”

“Yes I did. My body, it shuts down if both Hideyoshi’s or Kaneki’s body dies or is not functioning anymore. If both die, my body has a time limit as to how long I can still work with both of them gone. It is part of my function for my job is to protect both of you till the end. Once my job is complete, I shut down. But in this case, you are now functioning, plus I’m getting weak signals from Kaneki. I was reactivated again.”

“Really?” Hide said to himself as he let the cloth fall onto the floor. He then proceeded to walk across the room and towards the doctor’s chair and tables. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the leather on the seats were cracked and torn in some areas. The bottles were dusty and empty with discoloration along the bottom half to indicate the previous liquids it has dealt with in the past. The equipment on the tables were also dusty and followed the similar discoloration as the bottles. He looked at each one of the bottles on the table then proceeded to look at the chair more. He reached out a hand and touched the tips of his fingers against the rusted metal armrest.

 

_There were screws and metal panels of all shapes and sizes everywhere. There was a long tube filled with a red liquid, the liquid dripping from one end into a large beaker. There was blood too. Smeared onto the table, speckles of it on the floor. The view is moved to the chair and the sight made Hide tense up. It was Kaneki but his eyes were closed, a breathing apparatus over his mouth. The long tube from earlier was connected to his left inner wrist, draining the blood he had left. His entire chest cavity was open and exposed but his insides were replaced with metal contraption and gears. Hideyoshi came to view in his bloodied lab coat. His hair was messy as if he’s been too busy to care for his appearance. Some of his hair was stuck to the side of his face from the sweat. He reached out a large metal panel and brought it to Kaneki’s chest._

_“This looks like it’ll fit his chest.” Hideyoshi said to himself. He picked up a screwdriver from the table and placed the metal panel on Kaneki’s chest. He bent down and brought the screwdriver up. The last thing Hide saw was Hideyoshi bringing the screwdriver to one edge of the metal panel and everything went dark._

_The setting was the same. Everything was messy but there was one main difference: there was no blood. There were a lot more metal parts scattered across the tables. The view was moved to the doctor’s chair and the person sitting on it was not Kaneki. It was Arima. Hideyoshi was working on Arima’s legs by putting gears and motors in them. With on click, the leg Hideyoshi was working on moved ever so slightly. Arima was in the process of being completed._

 

_The current location wasn’t clear. The surroundings were pitch black with only Hideyoshi in the center. He was looking down at his hand, his expression hard to read. On his right hand was a key. Immediately, Hide made the conclusion that the key in Hideyoshi’s hand was the key to open the box. It was gold and long with some thickness in it. The bow of the key was shaped into an oval. Hide tried his best to remember its appearance because he knows that it’ll be very crucial in the future. After a good look, everything started to fade and dim down._

When he opened his eyes, he seated on the ground and Arima had his hand supporting Hide’s back up. “Hide-kun? Are you alright?” Arima asked worriedly.  Hide blinked and nodded. Arima sighed. “Good. You collapsed. You were lucky that I was right behind you and ready to catch you. I’m guessing it was another memory?”

“Yeah it was. I saw you and Kaneki while you two were being made. I saw the key too.”

Arima’s eyes lit up. “The key?”

“Yes. I saw how it looks like but I don’t know the location.”

“It’s alright. At least we now know how it looks like.” Arima started to pull Hide up to his feet and made sure to hold him tightly in case he collapsed again. “It’s getting quite late already. We should continue this tomorrow.” At this point, Hide felt drained. Having multiple memories play one after the other was tiresome, not to mention the energy he spend within the day. So Hide agreed to the suggestion and both of them made their way back to the entrance of the shed.

As they reached the porch, Arima freezes and Hide notices. Not only that but he started to feel very uneasy. Both of them looked at each other with the same expression. “Do you feel that too?” Hide asks and Arima nods. They enter the house cautiously, their senses suddenly heightened. Both of them jumped when they heard loud thumping noises coming from upstairs, specifically Tsukiyama’s room and they both visibly tenses up when they started hearing loud cries of pain from Tsukiyama. “Tsukiyama-san!” Hide said in panic. They wasted no time to run up the stairs and up to Tsukiyama’s room. Hide is ahead of Arima and he bursts through the door. Tsukiyama’s eyes are closed tightly but he’s thrashing around wildly on the bed and screaming in pain and fear. The sight terrifies Hide and he’s frozen on the spot.

Arima runs into the room and tries to approach Tsukiyama. He takes a few steps forward but then suddenly stalls and freezes. He chokes a breath and clutches his chest. He falls onto his knees and tries to keep himself up with his arms but fails and collapses onto the ground grunting and crying in pain. “Arima-san!” Hide’s eyes are wide and Arima’s eyes look back at Hide and they’re equally as wide and alarming. “Hide-kun, run!” Arima chokes out. Hide is confused but uses all the strength he has to run towards the door. He’s almost through and out the door until it slams shut with a loud bang.

“Shit!” Hide curses to himself. He turns around and screams when he sees Tsukiyama towering over him. His lips are curled in a demonic smile and a low chuckle emanating from his throat. Hide looks into his eyes. That wasn’t Tsukiyama, Hide thought immediately.

“It’s time to end this.” Tsukiyama says, his voice was now very raspy and gritty. It was not his usual happy tone at all. “Once and for all. I’m going to end you right here, _Hideyoshi._ ” The Tsukiyama reached his hands to Hide’s neck and gripped tightly. Hide was caught by surprise and his blood ran cold. He was gasping for breath and clawing at Tsukiyama’s wrists. “Tsu…ki-yama…s-san..!” Hide choked out and tried to push away from the strangling. Tears start stinging Hide’s eyes and his lungs burned and screamed for air. His head started to feel light and his vision blurred. With the last of his strength, Hide sobbed. “Please…” the grip around his neck started to loosen and to Hide’s surprise, he saw tears running down Tsukiyama’s cheeks. The grip around his neck completely pulled back and let go and Hide took in big gasps of air. He sees Tsukiyama falling on his knees and hiding his face in his hands.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Tsukiyama says. “I couldn’t control myself. That wasn’t me.” Hide approaches Tsukiyama to try and comfort him but the other flinches and tells him to stop. “Don’t go near me… I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”

“Tsukiyama-san…” Hide can’t disobey. Not when something like this has happened. Arima starts to get back up, still a bit shaky. His arms push his upper body in a sitting up position. He looks at Hide, worried. “That presence.” Arima begins. “That was the strongest negative presence I’ve ever felt. And that presence, I know it very well. It’s Shuu.”

Arima looks over at Tsukiyama then back at Hide.

“We need to open the box and end all of this before Tsukiyama loses his ability to go as himself. We need to end all of this before Shuu completely takes over his body.”

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I just want to thank you all for your support. I've honestly thought about dropping this story but I'm not going to do that. We're almost at the end of the story which saddens me a bit but it's not going to be over for me. I'm still going to continue writing! Anyways, enjoy :)
> 
> WARNING! This chapter may contain some self-harm references!!

The room was silent. Despite no words being said, the general feeling they were all feeling was the same. Shock and fear. The first one who broke the silence was Tsukiyama. “Hide-kun…” his eyes shifted to meet Hide’s and they were glossy with tears. “What… why is this happening?” Hide looked at Arima, uncertain if he should spill all the information he knows. Hide could tell that Arima was thinking hard based on how his lips opened slightly as to say something but then quickly shut. Arima opened his mouth again.

“At this point, there’s no reason why we should hide this information anymore.” Hide nodded and continued to talk to Tsukiyama. “Tsukiyama-san, I’m going to tell you what I know but I need you to be calm when I say this. I need you to be as understanding as possible, okay?”

Tsukiyama remained silent then swallowed a lump that formed in his throat. “Okay. I’ll listen.”

 

After Hide revealed all the information, he subconsciously braced himself for any violent reactions from his caretaker. Surprisingly, Tsukiyama remained calm. It was obvious that he was very shocked and was trying to absorb all of the new info but he tried his best to cope. “Kishou k-killed my grandfather, Shuu?”

“Yes. He had to do it.” Hide confirmed, Arima nodding in response. “I’m sorry, Tsukiyama. I had no choice.” Arima said.

“It’s alright. I understand. I would do the same if I were in your place.” Tsukiyama smiled softly. “Hide-kun, I’m sorry but I’m really tired right now. I’d like to sleep if that’s alright.” Upon closer inspection, his eyes were definitely drooping and slightly red. His body seemed to slump more than usual and looked like he relied on objects around him to support his body weight.

“Sure but are you okay with sleeping alone?” Hide brought up. The caretaker’s eyes widened a bit and he visibly stiffened. “N-No no. I don’t want to sleep alone. P-please.” Tsukiyama said frantically. “Okay then. Let’s sleep in my room then.” Hide offered. “I have a lot more space there for all three of us to stay in.”

They assigned their beds to sleep in right after. Tsukiyama would sleep on Hide’s bed and Hide would take an extra mattress from his closet and sleep on the floor opposite to Tsukiyama. Arima said that since he’s a robot, he doesn’t need sleep and that he can simply stand and watch over them as they sleep. Hide and Tsukiyama felt guilty thinking that Arima would be standing the whole night even if he was a robot so they offered him a chair in case he wanted to take a break.

They got into their beds and Arima got into his position by Hide’s desk, taking a seat. Once they got settled, Hide asked Arima to turn off the main light and turn on the lamp on his desk. Hide shifted to his side and looked at Tsukiyama, surprised to see that the other had also shifted to look at him.

“Are you alright, Tsukiyama-san?” Hide asks. Tsukiyama smiles softly and hums in response. His eyes are slowly closing and Hide feels a yawn creeping up. Soon, Hide’s eyes completely close and he falls asleep.

 

_Hide looks around to see that Tsukiyama is right beside him. “Tsukiyama-san?” He calls out. Tsukiyama looks at him, shocked. “Hide-kun, you’re here too?” Hide was surprised. How was Tsukiyama able to respond in a dream? “This is a dream, isn’t it?” Tsukiyama asks._

_“You know that this is a dream?” Hide is now intrigued. This ‘Tsukiyama’ in his dream seems too responsive to be a generated dream. Could it be that this is the real Tsukiyama? Are they sharing the same dream? Hide put those two theories into consideration._

_Their surroundings start to morph. From the dark, hazy background, it started to lighten into a warm yellow. The temperature of the place started to become warm and cozy. A few seconds passed and the place starts to look clearer._

_They were outside, on the porch of the house they were currently residing in and it seemed like it was around dusk, right when the sun was setting. The house and the surrounding area seemed more alive than its current real state. Birds were chirping and the grass was green and neatly trimmed. One noticeable detail was that there were a few small houses within the area. “Houses?” Hide said to himself. Tsukiyama was also taken aback. “This is strange. Why are there houses? There were no houses around the area when we arrived.” He said._

_Both of them stepped down from the porch to look around for a bit. However, the moment they stepped down, there were two familiar voices that started speaking. Tsukiyama and Hide both turn around to see both of their grandfathers, Shuu and Hideyoshi, sitting on the steps of the porch and smiling to each other. They both looked young, around the current age of Tsukiyama and Hide._

_“Can they see us?” Tsukiyama asks. Hide picks up a small stone and throws it lightly towards the two on the porch. The stone seemed to pass through both of them and neither of them looked fazed. Hide shook his head. “No, they can’t see us. This is a memory.”_

_They both went closer to the two who were sitting by the porch._

_“Wow. You have to marry her?” Hideyoshi asked. Shuu simply laughed. “Yeah, I have to marry her. My parents want me to since she’s from a rich family. But I don’t love her.”_

_“You don’t love her?” Hideyoshi looked confused. Shuu’s expression softened and his voice became lower. He leaned closer to Hideyoshi, not breaking eye contact. “I love someone else.” Both of them smiled at each other. “Whoever you love must be a lucky person to have someone like you.” Hideyoshi replied. The current mood of the scene felt very intimate and romantic._

_Hide and Tsukiyama looked at each other. “Were both of them…?” Tsukiyama questioned. Suddenly, the mood changed and alerted all four of them. There were footsteps coming from behind Tsukiyama and Hide and Shuu and Hideyoshi’s gazes were shifted to whatever was behind both of them._

_Tsukiyama and Hide turned around only to see Kaneki standing. Based on his expression, his appearance and mannerisms, it seemed that Kaneki was still human and had not underwent the transformation into a doll. Kaneki smiled and looked towards Hide’s direction and smiled. “Hide-kun.” Kaneki said to Hide’s shock. Tsukiyama seemed shocked too._

_“Hide-kun, I thought that we can’t be seen.” Tsukiyama said. Hide couldn’t believe it either so he turned around to look at Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi was looking straight at Kaneki and Hide was between the two. He concluded that ‘Hide-kun’ was what Kaneki would call Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi’s cheeks now had a slight pink tint to it and he laughed nervously. Hideyoshi proceeded to stand up and walk towards Kaneki, Hide moving to the side so that he could clear a path for him.  As he was walking over to Kaneki, Hideyoshi turned around to face Shuu and flashed an apologetic smile._

_“I’m sorry Shuu, I have to go somewhere important. I’ll see you tonight!” he said as he reached out and held Kaneki’s hand. Shuu hummed in response and showed a smile that was believable but the pain in his eyes said otherwise. He watched the two walk down the small country road until they disappeared from sight. Shuu’s expression fell and his eyes landed to his feet._

_“Kaneki… he didn’t even say anything to me.” Shuu spoke to himself. “It’s as if he’s forgotten me already.” He looked up and scoffed. “Lucky person to have someone like me? It’s useless if it’s one-sided like it is now.” He stood up and proceeded to go inside the house. “I love Kaneki but he loves someone else.” Suddenly, he turns around and looks straight at Hideyoshi which makes his blood run cold._

_“He loves Hideyoshi, not me.”_

_The next memory started to take shape and the aura immediately took a turn for the worst. It felt thick and panicked. Fear was surrounding them. Tsukiyama and Hide clutched each other tightly, unsure what to do. Two people were starting to appear in front of them. Two bodies of similar stature were facing each other, one with white hair and the other with blond. It was clear that the two figures were Kaneki and Hideyoshi._

_The current scene was now very clear: they were in the attic and Kaneki was now in his functioning doll state. Tsukiyama and Kaneki looked at Hideyoshi’s features. His eyebrows were knitted and his eyes lost the spark of happiness. His lab coat was dirty and torn around the sleeves. Hideyoshi reached out a hand to caress Kaneki’s cheek and Kaneki held his hand. Hideyoshi sounded very worried._

_“He’s not safe to be around anymore. He’s lost his mind.” Kaneki looked down and very small tears, almost unnoticeable, trickled down. “He’s… He’s not the Shuu you used to know anymore.”_

_Then the scene changed in an instant through a blinding white light. If they thought that the aura from the previous scene was bad, this one was far worse. Not only was it filled with fear, but with malevolence and sinister tints. It was that of pure madness and lunacy._

_They see that Hideyoshi is on the ground, struggling to get up. The room looked unfamiliar but for some reason, the two felt like this place was near their real location outside of this dream. The room was a bit too big to be called small but too small to be called medium. There was a single wooden door which they guessed was the exit and there were no windows in the room. Hideyoshi’s breathing was ragged and heavy. Shuu is standing over Hideyoshi’s body, a big and shiny knife in his right hand. Shuu’s eyes and smile were brimming with bloodlust._

_He bends down to straddle Hideyoshi and grabs his neck in a strong grip with his left hand. Hideyoshi is choking by now and trying to kick away from Shuu but is visibly losing his energy and consciousness. Shuu howls with laughter at the other’s futile attempts. He raises the hand with the knife and looks him in the eye._

_“It’s all over for you, Hideyoshi.”_

_Shuu brings the knife down with force and Hideyoshi lets out a cry as the tip of the knife makes it’s first contact with him straight to his heart. Pain shoots up Tsukiyama’s and Hide’s chests for a split second before the scene vanishes._

“No!” Tsukiyama and Hide bolted up from their beds. A sheen of sweat was glistening on their foreheads and dampened their clothes. They looked at each other, surprised that they both woke up at the same time and doing the same thing. They both look down and notice that they both had their right hand clutching their shirts over their hearts. Hide feels a dull ache “Did you-?” Tsukiyama asks. He doesn’t need to finish the sentence in order to understand what Tsukiyama wanted to say. Hide nods in response.

“Are both of you alright?” Arima speaks up. He was seated on the char by Hide’s desk with his arm and legs crossed. He looks a bit worried and confused.

“We’re fine. We just-“ Hide turns to see that Tsukiyama is looking at him with the same expression he has. “We were both in the same dream.”

“No wonder the atmosphere kept changing.” Arima mutters to himself. “I could somehow identify your dreams. I didn’t see them but it felt like someone was telling me what exactly happened and I could forma a mental image in my head.”

“All three of us could feel it?” Tsukiyama thinks. “The memories are syncing up with each other.”

“Indeed. I’m not sure if it’s a bad thing or a good thing to be completely honest.” Arima says. The pain on Tsukiyama’s and Hide’s chests starts to fade and they begin to ground themselves back into reality. It’s already morning, judging by how the birds are chirping and the light piercing through the windows. Tsukiyama looks over at the clock placed beside Arima.

9:36 AM.

“We should make breakfast.” Tsukiyama suggests and the other two hum in agreement.

As they go down to prepare breakfast, Hide notices that Tsukiyama becomes tense and cautious. He concludes that it was because of what had happened last time he was there in the kitchen. Once the living room was in sight, Tsukiyama and Hide feel an ache in their head and a memory begins to play.

 

_Shuu was curled up in the corner of the living room, holding a knife and his wrists were slashed and covered in blood. He was crying, repeating the words ‘This isn’t me. It’s him.’ Over and over again. Hideyoshi was kneeling in front of him. He pried the knife away from the other’s grip and tossed it to the other end of the room. He held Shuu in a comforting hug, whispering kind words into his ear and hushing him softly._

_Shuu seemed to calm down a bit and returned the hug. He began to sob into Hideyoshi’s chest. “Help me. I don’t feel like ‘me’ anymore.” Shuu said._

 

“That was the memory I saw when I saw both of you the other night.” Arima said. Hide feels Tsukiyama reaching out and holding his hand tightly. His hand is cold and trembling. Hide brings Tsukiyama’s hand up to his lips and places a soft kiss on the back. He smiles at him. “We’ll be alright. I’m here for you.” There is a noticeable flush dusted on Tsukiyama’s cheeks when Hide says that and Hide finds it adorable.

They begin to prepare breakfast. Arima told Tsukiyama to rest and take it slow if he felt uncomfortable in the kitchen. Arima assured him that he’ll be there to protect both of them and he doesn’t want to see him having a hard time. Tsukiyama takes it slow in the kitchen and feels reassured having Arima and Hide with him. He smiles to himself. “I’m happy with both of them here.” He thinks.

After the two finish eating (Arima has no need to eat since he’s a robot so he offered to do all the cleaning), they decided to continue their mission.

“Tsukiyama-san, can we see the box?” Hide asks. Tsukiyama nods and leads them all to his room. He opens his closet and reaches in deep before coming out again with the box in hand. Hide extends his hand out to the box but the moment the tips of his finger touch it, sharp pain shoots through the area on his back below his right shoulder and he retracts his arm right away.  Hide was not the only one who winced in pain. Tsukiyama hissed at the sensation on his arm and nearly dropped the box.

They looked at each other. “Pain?” Hide asked and Tsukiyama nodded. Hide looked down at the box again. He didn’t know why it was painful to touch it and why it was only that portion of his back that felt the pain instead of the point of contact. If this box was another trigger for a memory, he should take the opportunity. Tsukiyama seemed to think the same and didn’t retract the hand holding the box. Hide took in a deep breath before reaching out to touch the box again. A bright white light flashes and a series of scenes play before them.

_Muffled screams. An arm. A lot of blood trickling down the arm, from the shoulder to the finger tips. Someone’s back, a lot of blood flowing down too. Then the last image appeared. The key, bloodied._

The series of images disappear and the pain from the initial contact came back again, this time Arima was affected as well.

“Strange.” Arima spoke up. “I saw that too. Blood?”

“I’m confused as well.” Hide says. “Tsukiyama-san, do you have the key for this box?”

“I-“ Tsukiyama paused and his gaze hardened as he tried to recall his previous memories. “I was never given the key to this. In fact, I don’t recall any memory of a key.”

“Hm. I have an idea.” Hide suggests. “Let’s go down to the basement with Tsukiyama-san. We might be able to trigger more memories down there and it can possibly help us look for the location of the key.” Arima and Tsukiyama look hesitant but they soon decide that that’s the only choice they have right now if they want to make more progress. Tsukiyama nods and returns the box back inside his closet. Before they leave for the shed, they bring three flashlights.

Now that they stand in front of the shed, Tsukiyama starts shaking.

“Hide-kun, I feel like there’s a strong negative energy that doesn’t want me to go down there.” Tsukiyama says. “I don’t feel too good about this but this is the only way to get an answer.” Arima rests a hand on Tsukiyama’s shoulder.

“Tsukiyama, tell us right away if you start feeling light-headed. I’ll be there to protect you.” He says. Tsukiyama looks straight into his eye and smiles softly. He looks back at the shed and takes in a deep breath. He was the first one to enter the shed but he took his time examining the interior.

Hide and Arima opened the hatch on the ground and Hide led the way. Arima waited for Tsukiyama to go down the hatch before his turn to go in, staying behind the two to make sure that they were safe. As they walked down the hallway, Tsukiyama and Hide suddenly stopped and a cold wind blew even if there was no opening of some sort for wind to pass through. Hide pushes the double doors and a cold chill runs through his spine.

_Shuu was inside the lab ahead together with Hideyoshi. Shuu was inspecting the place but the look of suspicion was written all over his face. “Hideyoshi, what exactly do you plan on doing?” Hideyoshi looked at him and smiled. “To begin a dream.” Shuu felt immediately uneasy. For a moment, the look in Hideyoshi’s eyes weren’t the same. They looked like someone who was stuck in their fantasy world, unaware of the reality they were living in._

After the memory plays, Tsukiyama hurries inside the lab, obviously drawn by curiosity. He is taken aback by the different things inside the lab. He’s everywhere: the capsule, the doctor’s chair and the tables with cylinders and tubes. However, he was quick to skim through them. What really caught Tsukiyama’s attention was the end of the room, directly across the double doors. He doesn’t know why it draws him close but he feel an energy from it. Hide took notice of his caretaker’s actions and proceeded to follow him. Upon closer inspection, Hide noticed that a certain portion of the wall looked more rotten and old compared to the rest of the stretch. The transition from where it looked rotten to the less rotten portion looked like a very crisp line, too crisp to look like the same material. Tsukiyama knocked on the surface of the rotten portion.

Hollow. Wooden.

“This is definitely a separate portion. This is wood, not concrete like the rest of the walls.” Hide says. He pushes on the wooden portion and it comes off as one tall rectangle. The initial sound startled both of them and grabbed Arima’s attention, leading him towards both of them. The wooden structure was quite heavy and Hide had a hard time holding it up. It started to lean back onto Hide and he was visibly struggling. Tsukiyama tried to help him but it was still too heavy for both of them to carry. The two started to freak out and the wood was about to completely crush them when suddenly it became light. They looked up to see that Arima held the top of the wood with both his hands and lifted it over his head with ease. He looked at both of them.

“You two looked like you were struggling.” Arima smirked teasingly. “This is very light and easy to lift.”

“Psh, you’re the robot here. You were built with the superhuman strength.” Hide teased. His mood quickly went south when he looked forwards and shone the flashlight to the area which the wooden board was covering.

“Shit!” He cursed and stumbled back. Tsukiyama did the same. Behind the wooden board was an empty space and inside was what looked like a human body standing and leaning against the wall. “Arima-san!” Hide called out and pointed at the body. Arima instantly placed the wooden board on the floor and stood in front of Tsukiyama and Hide to protect them from the body. Arima pauses and his body relaxes.

“Hide-kun.” Arima walks up to the body and reaches out to turn it’s head to face him. “It’s alright, don’t be afraid. This isn’t a real person. It’s a robot.” He looks closer and sees a name tag over the robot’s left breast. “Yoshimura?” Arima reads out the name. Tsukiyama’s eyes light up and he’s quick to his feet.

“Yoshimura… the one who sent me the note?” He says as he shines his flashlight to the robot. Arima moves to the side so that Tsukiyama could inspect it further. “I’ve never actually met him before.” Hide follows Tsukiyama’s actions. They stand beside each other and look at the robot closely. Yoshimura had white hair just like Arima but unlike Arima, his facial features looked like that of an old man. His face had wrinkles that looked between looking painted on and bring real wrinkles. His eyes were closed and a layer of dust covered his entire exterior. Hide reached out to touch Yoshimura’s aged suit and felt a spark between his fingers.

_It was nighttime and the air was cool. Yoshimura walked slowly through the dark road. In his arms was a baby, wrapped in cloth and crying. A large basket with a piece of paper that read ‘Hide’ was looped around his left arm. At the end of the road, there was a large estate that was well-lit. It was the Tsukiyama household. Yoshimura made is way to the entrance of the estate. Somehow he was able to get through the gate and was now on the front porch. The door was locked. Yoshimura set the basket down and cradled the baby in his arms. He moved a portion of the cloth that was covering the baby’s face. A bittersweet smile was laced on his expression. He reached out a hand to slightly caress the baby’s cheek and the baby seemed to have calmed down. “Stay safe, Hide.” Yoshimura says before setting him down inside the basket, making sure that he was comfortable and warm._

_Yoshimura knocked on the door quite hard to make sure that the sound was loud enough to wake someone up. After a while, Yoshimura ran and hid by a bush and watched Hide. Someone had opened the door and saw Hide. It was Tsukiyama’s father. He resembled Tsukiyama almost identically._

_“Oh my, a baby.” He said. He picked up the baby and cradled it carefully. He saw the paper inside the basket. “Hide?” He looked around to see if there was anyone around, possibly the person who left him. When he saw that no one was there, Tsukiyama’s father picked up the basket and brought the baby inside the house, calling for a maid to bring in warm blankets for the baby. Yoshimura smiled and left the estate._

_The scene changes and Yoshimura is seen in the basement with a single lamp. He was seated by one of the tables with the tubes and cylinders and was jotting something down on a piece of paper._

_‘Make a friend in your new house.’_

_The last scene is him walking inside the space left by the wooden panel in the basement. As he walks inside the space, Hideyoshi’s voice was heard like an echo._

_“Yoshimura, he was the first robot I ever created. He agreed to the experiment willingly. He took his attitude from his original attitude when he was still human. He was not skilled at machinery or any sort of technology but he cared for his grandchildren dearly. Therefore he was not able to take care of Kaneki or fix him since Kaneki was a robot and over his teen years. However, he would be able to take care of Hide. My problem is that I don’t know his lifespan. He was my first attempt and full of defects. Although he is a robot, he was an old man before he was changed. He still things like an old man and thinks that he’s going to die. Yes, he might be able to take care of Hide but I don’t know what he’ll do when he thinks he’s about to die. Knowing Yoshimura when he was still alive, he would entrust the child to someone he trusts.”_

_Yoshimura picked up the wooden panel and closed himself in. He whispers one last thing before he closes his eyes. “My time here on this earth has ended. My job here is done.”_

 

“You saw that right?’ Tsukiyama asked Hide and Arima. The two nod. Something doesn’t quite fit, Hide thinks. Shuu was made to marry someone else even if he loved Kaneki. Why didn’t he spend time with his wife before he died? “Tsukiyama-san, if your grandfather was made to marry someone else, why didn’t he spend time with her before he died?”

“Well, our family had a tradition of arranged marriages. They were to create stronger ties and to have an heir to the wealth. It was common for those within the marriages to have separate affairs, often with their true lovers instead of the forced ones. My grandfather was the last of our family to be in an arranged marriage. His goal was simple: to marry and to create a child. Once he finished his task, I guess he left our main estate to stay here.”

“Did he take care of your father?” Hide asks.

“Not really. My father pretty much grew up with no father figure. He grew up with his mother only. Him and his mother resented my grandfather.”

“Something isn’t right.” Arima speaks up and it gets Tsukiyama’s and Hide’s attention. “Why is it that Tsukiyama-san is also going through the Reminiscence? I can understand my situation a bit because I came from the same timeline but I don’t understand Tsukiyama-san’s reason. He did not go through the same process as Hide-kun where his body is his grandfather’s. Tsukiyama was born in his own body, not his grandfather’s. Plus, the memories that he is seeing is not his. They’re his grandfather’s.”

“What are you trying to imply?” Hide questions.

“Tsukiyama.” Arima looks at him urgently. “I’ve noticed that you have a certain presence in you. It’s another presence as if there’s someone else living inside you and it’s a presence I’ve felt before. It’s your grandfather’s presence. There are also times, like last night, where you act and you aren’t even aware of what you did or you can’t remember. These memories you are seeing aren’t yours too. Your case is different because Hide-kun is in the body of the original owner of the memories whereas you are a completely different body.”

Tsukiyama was quivering at what Arima as saying and urged him to continue his last sentence.

“Tsukiyama, I think your grandfather is trying to take over your body.”

“But why?” Hide questions.

“I believe that Shuu wants a physical form to prevent you, Hide-kun, to finish Kaneki. Right now you are considered a threat to him and he needs to eliminate his threat.”

“H-How do we stop this?” Tsukiyama asks.

“Well I highly suspect that Shuu is connected to Kaneki. For him to move on, we need to complete Kaneki since Shuu’s goal was to leave him unfinished. If we finish him, he might be able to accept that Kaneki is completed and will move on. If I’m not mistaken, based on the memories that played, he has feelings for Kaneki. If his good side sees that Kaneki is free, he might be freed too. The last piece of Kaneki is most likely inside your box. The only problem is that we need the key to open it.”

“Do we have any more clues as to where it is?”

“We think that your grandfather hid the key. In order to find it, we need to look through his memories. You have his memories but there is a risk because there is a possibility that if you see more of his memories, the easier it will be for him to take full control of you.”

Tsukiyama is silent and contemplates his answer. His breathing is heavy and uneven. However, he looks back up at Arima, determined. “I’m willing to take the risk. If it means that all of this will be over and Hide will be safe, then I’ll do it.”

“I appreciate your determination.” Arima commended. “So the memory we got from the box was a lot of blood running down someone’s arm and back, muffled screams and the key which as bloody. Then you two felt pain in your arms.”

“Blood.” Hide ponders. “What if the location of the actual key is in Kaneki? There was a lot of blood when he was being changed into a robot. Then for the arm, there was a date written on him. On his arm.”

“You could be right, but what about the back and the muffled screams?” Tsukiyama adds. “There must’ve been some resistance if someone was screaming. I don’t know where the back comes in play.”

“True.” Arima says. “Let’s try checking Kaneki then. We might be able to trigger another key memory.”

Arima put the wooden panel back into place and ushered the two out of the basement. When they entered the house, Tsukiyama stumbled a bit. “Tsukiyama, are you alright?” Arima reached out to catch the other when the caretaker suddenly laughed maniacally. Arima quickly pulled back and stood in front of Hide to protect him. Hide gripped onto Arima’s arm and Arima placed his hand over Hide’s.

“Hah… Haha! You two _fools._ ” Tsukiyama sneered. “Good luck getting the key. You don’t have the _guts_ to do it. Hahaha!” In an instant, Tsukiyama blinks and looks surprised. “What’s wrong? Why are you two looking at me like that?”

Arima raises a brow. “Do you not remember what just happened?” Tsukiyama shakes his head confusingly. “No. Everything went dark for a bit. I thought the lights went out. Did I… Did I lose control?”

Arima nodded. “You called us fools and wished us luck sarcastically in getting the key, saying that we don’t have the guts to do it.” The look on Tsukiyama’s face was of pure shock. “Really? I don’t remember anything.”

“We have to hurry.” Hide says and leads them up to the attic. The mid afternoon sun lit up the room and revealed Kaneki’s silhouette by the window. Tsukiyama was cautious around the doll. He reached out to touch Kaneki lightly and yet another memory plays.

_It was in the attic. The sounds of metal parts crashing onto the ground were audible as well as ragged breaths. Shuu is holding Kaneki down and Kaneki’s entire front panel is open. There was blood scattered everywhere, especially on Shuu’s arms. There are some screws on the ground. Judging by the looks of the scene, Shuu must have handled Kaneki quite roughly and was not wearing any safety gloves, resulting to the multiple cuts and scrapes on his hands and arms. There may have been another reason but it was simply a possibility. Shuu looks down at Kaneki and sneers._

_“Now you will never rest in peace.”_

_Everything fades to black before all that was scene was the box being shut and locked by the key._

 

The memory gave Tsukiyama and Hide strength to continue on. “Arima-san, let’s open Kaneki up.” Arima nodded and proceeded to set Kaneki down on the floor softly. He muttered a soft ‘excuse me’ before lifting up Kaneki’s shirt and exposing his chest. He opened up the front panel and Tsukiyama used a flashlight to reveal what was inside.

It wasn’t anything special, just the normal wires and mechanisms. Hide felt his hopes drop until Arima pointed something out. “Wait, there’s an empty portion right there.” Arima reached in and pointed at the area slightly above Kaneki’s left lung towards the far back. The empty portion was quite small but it was definitely obvious that something was meant to be placed inside. “There are some ports here too.” But upon closer inspection, Arima and Tsukiyama’s brows furrowed.

“I’ve never seen this kind of port before.” Arima admitted. “These look like tubes, not possible connector ports with copper wire.”

“I’ve never seen these kinds of ports too.” Tsukiyama chimed in. “This is my first time seeing something like this.”

“Do you think it’s some kind of special component?” Hide asks. Arima’s eyes light up.

“Oh! They could be a battery. The size of the box looks like it can hold something of that small size.”

“That makes sense.” Tsukiyama said. “But there’s something that doesn’t seem right. Why was there pain in our backs?”

The two turn and look at Tsukiyama. He has a point. That one last hint is very vague and they have no possible answer as to why the pain is only in that specific area. As much as Hide wants to know why, something in him is terrified to know and he has a very bad feeling about it.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, how are y'all doing? I hope that you're all doing well. This story is nearing it's end but it's not over yet! Ohohoho.  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! See you in the next update :)

“Arima-san,” Hide looked at the robot and the robot looked back. “This might sound strange but can we inspect you too? Maybe the key is inside you or possibly a hint?” Arima looked confused at first but then relaxed. “I suppose we could give it a shot.”

The two watched as Arima began to unbutton his coat. Hide looked intently while Tsukiyama had a light pink flush dusted on his cheeks. Even if he knew that Arima was a robot, Arima still had human feature plus he was flustered at how quick and relaxed Arima was with the thought of undressing. Tsukiyama would watch with shy eyes.

Arima shrugged his coat off and folded it nicely. Hide took the coat from his hands so that Arima wouldn’t have a hard time. Arima’s chest was on full display and Tsukiyama swallowed hard. “He really does look like a human.” He muttered. Arima reached his right arm to his left and opened his panel to reveal the inside of his chest. Tsukiyama gasped softly, still not used to the fact that Arima was in fact a working robot. “Hide-kun, do you see any key?” Arima asked.

Hide stepped closer and Tsukiyama raised his flashlight towards Arima’s chest. Then, another memory took place.

 

_The room was gray. No windows but a single table at the side of the room and a chair at the center was present. There were two blurred bodies on the floor. Around them was a pool of red. Blood, they concluded. Then, the two bodies started to clear._

_One of them was Arima. He was kneeling on the ground, cradling the second body in his arms. Soon enough, the second body was clear and could be identified._

_Shuu._

_There was a knife puncturing Shuu’s heart and Arima was holding the handle of the knife. Arima’s eyes were wide and his breaths were heavy. Shuu’s eyes were filled with anger but then started to soften. They softened so drastically that it seemed like Shuu switched personalities at that very moment. As if the initial angry look in his eyes wasn’t him._

_Shuu looked up at Arima with his soft eyes. Small tears collected at the sides of his eyes. He opened his mouth and his voice came out soft and full of regret. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Shuu’s voice croaked out before the light in his eyes flicker and disappear._

_He’s gone._

_Arima let’s go of the knife and his eyes begin to water. He pulls Shuu into a hug and sobs into the dead man’s shoulder._

Hide’s heart was pounding and so was Tsukiyama’s. Both had a thin sheet of sweat across their forehead, Tsukiyama sweating more profusely than Hide. “Killed.” Tsukiyama muttered. The two looked at Arima in search for any kind of response. Arima had his eyes to the floor but he didn’t need to look up to know what the two were thinking of.

“The look in his eyes.” Arima started. “They belonged to an innocent man. That man I saw wouldn’t have done all that he did. Shuu, he really had two sides. I watched the real Shuu die in my arms.” Arima’s voice broke when he reached his last sentence. Based on how Arima was standing, he was tense. The current atmosphere made everything feel heavy and awkward. Was there anything he could do to break the silence? Hide thought to himself. He, however, failed to notice that Tsukiyama had stepped forward directly in front of Arima. Arima brought his eyes up to meet Tsukiyama’s. He opened his mouth to say something but a surprised gasp left his lips as Tsukiyama reached his right hand out to caress.

“It’s alright, Arima. It wasn’t your fault. I know you were only doing your job.” Tsukiyama said. Immediately, Arima noticed that the look in his eyes were not Tsukiyama’s. Although the look was soft and caring, he knew that he wasn’t looking at Tsukiyama. The look in his eyes resembled that of the last look he got before Shuu died in his arms.

“’Arima?’” Arima points out.  “Tsukiyama calls me ‘Kishou.’ Shuu is one of the only people who would call me ‘Arima’ with no honorifics.” Tsukiyama blinks and takes a rather pained breath in. Right away, he looks embarrassed and pulls his hand back. “What in the world? Why was I touching you?” Tsukiyama bows his head down with his cheeks lightly tinted pink. “Kishou, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to.”

“Did you remember anything?” Arima raises a brow. Tsukiyama pauses and looks at him, confused. “What do you mean? Did I… do anything?”

“Tsukiyama-san.” Hide says. “What do you remember?”

“I… I saw Kishou’s memory then everything went black for a moment. Somehow, I felt warm. Then the next thing I knew, my hand was on Kishou’s cheek.”

“That look was definitely Shuu’s. I am sure of it.” Arima says.

Suddenly, there was a pulse in the air. It was soft and warm but enough to catch their attention. “Kaneki.” They all said in unison, all to their surprise. Arima was the first and fastest to make a move. He quickly snapped around to inspect Kaneki but saw that he didn’t even move an inch. However, Tsukiyama took notice of something. “Do any of you feel warm?” he asks.

Hide and Arima look at each other, then to Tsukiyama. Now that he mentioned it, Hide did feel warm. It was different though. It wasn’t the normal warm that you’d associate with temperature. It was the kind of warm you’d feel when you reunite with someone you love or maybe when you return home. Arima smiled softly. He must’ve felt it too. “It’s coming from Kaneki. He knows that the Shuu he knew, the good man, was here.”

“So it’s confirmed then.” Hide speaks and catches the two other’s attention. “There _are_ two Shuus. One is the good one and the other is the insane one who’s trying to stop us.”

“That sounds right.” Tsukiyama comments. The color in his face seemed to drain a bit and his lower lip trembled ever so slightly but he quickly gained composure. “Now that we know this, we might be able to get some help or information from the good Shuu.”

“We could do that but so far there are only three ways we can do it.” Arima says. “It’s either through our memories, our dreams or-“ Arima paused before continuing again. “Or letting him speak through you, Tsukiyama, which I don’t think is the safest way.”

“But would that be the most effective way since we’re talking to Shuu directly?” Tsukiyama asks.

“Possibly but we don’t want to risk losing you completely. We don’t want you to lose control. I don’t want what happened to Shuu to happen to you, Tsukiyama.” Arima’s voice was soft as he approached the end of the sentence. Hide understood what Arima meant. He didn’t want to kill Tsukiyama if he lost control. It was, indeed, his job after all to keep Hide safe from the insane Shuu. If it meant that he had to kill, he would.

The sun began to set quickly. This part of the countryside seemed to have early sunsets. It was something that was at their disadvantage because there was less light to work with. The interior of the house would dim drastically and it was a huge hassle to search in the dark. Soon, the three decided to make dinner.

The process of making dinner was held in a comfortable silence. No one spoke except for the occasional ‘Watch out behind you’ or ‘I’ll start washing up the utensils.’ Dinner was less silent than the cooking encounter but again, it was held in a comfortable silence.  Afterwards, Hide makes his way to the shower.

He finishes rinsing off all the soap and shampoo lathered on him and he slides the shower curtains to the side. The lights flicker as he does so but he wasn’t too alarmed for it was a common occurrence for an old house. He slicks his hair back and reaches for a towel but feels nothing. He curses under his breath as he realizes that he forgot to bring his towel.

“Tsukiyama-san!” Hide calls out. A faint ‘yes?’ was heard not too far from the door. “I forgot my towel. Can you please get one from my closet and give it to me?” Hide heard a ‘sure’ and calmed down. He hummed softly as he waited. A soft knock on the door got him back to reality and he hid his lower half behind the curtains. “Come in.” he prompted. Tsukiyama comes in with a pale yellow towel that looked almost white in his arms. He looked up and both of them locked eyes. As they did, everything flashed white.

 

_There were shrill screams that seemed to be coming from a very young child. They were screams of pain. Between each scream, the child would sob. Most of the child’s words were incoherent but some of the few words you could make out were ‘please stop’ and ‘why.’ They were very alarming, especially when it was a child screaming those words._

_The scenery started to form. Based on the way the screams bounced off the wall, it seemed to be a bathroom. The floor was made up of white tiles but upon further examination, the floor was speckled with blood. One particular area had blood pooling in it._

_Suddenly it wasn’t just the child’s voice that could be heard. There was a man’s voice, evil and twisted. He was laughing. The two figures started to clear up. The child was on the ground, right in the center of the pool of blood._

_It was Tsukiyama._

_He was on his side, curled up in pain as he bled more and more. It was unclear from where exactly he was bleeding from but the position of the pool of blood made it seem that the blood could possibly be coming from his upper body._

_A figure stood above him. It was Shuu. He held a knife in his hands, glistening with its steel and Tsukiyama’s blood under the light. There seemed to be too much blood on the tip of the knife that the excess trailed down Shuu’s arm and dripped onto his feet. Shuu continued to laugh and laugh before everything became black._

They opened their eyes and kept their gaze with each other. The towel was no longer in Tsukiyama’s grasp and was now on the ground by the time they opened their eyes. Tsukiyama turns pale and his legs start shaking. His breath became very heavy and uneven as he got down on the floor and started sobbing. Hide rushes to Tsukiyama, wrapping the towel loosely around his waist for some decency. As Hide wraps his arms around Tsukiyama, Hide hears fast and heavy footsteps from outside the door and Arima comes busting in. He looks panicked. “I saw it.” Arima said. Tsukiyama’s quivering voice makes its way out of his weak body.

“I don’t remember this at all. I don’t even have any scar to prove this memory to be true.” Tsukiyama cries. “This doesn’t make sense. Grandfather died way before I was even born.”

Arima looks at Hide. “I believe that this happened. There’s no way that we could see this memory in the first place if it wasn’t real.”

Hide swallows hard. Arima has a point, he thought. It was a memory. It definitely happened. But why was there no scar? Why didn’t Tsukiyama remember such a horrid experience? There was one possible answer.

“This is a memory. I’m sure of it.” Hide says. “As to why Tsukiyama-san doesn’t remember, I believe it was because he was very young at the time. He looked too young to be able to remember.”

“That’s true.” Arima adds. “But Shuu was able to hurt him. Plus, he hurt Tsukiyama recently, too.”

“Which means one thing.” Hide and Arima looked grim. “Although Shuu cannot maintain his form outside of memories, he can still handle physical objects and inflict damage for a short period of time.”

Arima stiffens as he realizes what Hide was going to continue saying. “Which means that he can still hurt any of us severely at any time. Even now.”

The air turned cold and Tsukiyama’s cries softened. Tsukiyama was the first to speak afterwards. “We have to end this.” He says. “He can hurt any of us even without a physical form. If he takes complete control of me, who knows what he’ll do to all of us.”

“Poltergeist.” Arima mutters.

“We cannot allow him to do anything more.” Hide pulls back and looks at both of them, determined. “This has to end now.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, guys I'm so sorry that this update is super late. School has been really busy and I haven't had enough time to write :( But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. We're nearing the end to this story ;_; I'd like to thank all of you for your support and I'm very grateful. See you all in the next chapter!

It was getting quite late at night and none of them had the energy to continue working. Hide agreed to stay with Tsukiyama as he finished taking a shower and soon after, they both made their way to Hide’s room to get ready for bed. As they passed by Tsukiyama’s room, Tsukiyama paused and shivered slightly. Hide took notice of the action. “Cold?” Hide asked. Tsukiyama shook his head. “No, more like ‘off-putting.’ Something doesn’t feel right.” Tsukiyama walks towards the door leading to his room. He places his palm flat against the door and nods. “This is where it’s coming from. I can sense it.” Before Tsukiyama can twist the doorknob open, Hide reaches out and grabs Tsukiyama’s wrist to stop him. “As much as I want to find out what’s inside there, I want Arima-san to be with us in case something happens.”

There was no sign of hesitation from Tsukiyama and Hide took this as the go signal to call Arima. After they called Arima, the three of them entered Tsukiyama’s room. Among the three of them, Tsukiyama was the only one who seemed to sense the aura of the room. “Something feels… new.” Tsukiyama said. “But somehow, it feels familiar too.”

Nothing too drastic was changed in the room. The only noticeable difference in the room was that Tsukiyama’s bed wasn’t kept. The blankets were opened and wrinkled, the bedsheets had ridges on it as if he’d been laying on it earlier and the pillows had dents in it where his head would’ve rested.

The two others watched Tsukiyama closely. “What else does it feel like?” Hide asks. Tsukiyama shuts his eyes for a bit and inhales deeply before quickly opening them again. His breathing starts to shake. “Not friendly.” He replied. Tsukiyama took small and paced steps around the room. Arima and Hide followed. As Tsukiyama looks around, he starts rubbing his arms up and down as if he was trying to warm himself up. “It’s getting chilly.” Tsukiyama softly muttered. He reached for his bed and ran a hand over the sheets. He felt a chill run up his spine and turned around. He yelped as he saw a faint, white figure of Shuu walk past him and towards his closet.

“Tsukiyama-san?” Hide called out. “Are you alright?”

“Did any of you see him?” Tsukiyama asked quickly, his heart racing. Arima and Hide looked at each other with confusion then back at Tsukiyama. “We didn’t see anything.” Arima answered. “Who did you see?”

“Sh… Shuu.” Tsukiyama sputtered out. “He walked past me. He was going there.” Tsukiyama pointed at his closet on his right. Arima was the first to take action as he walked towards it. Tsukiyama followed soon after and stood beside Arima.  “Why would he walk towards your closet?” Arima asked. “What do you use this closet for?”

“I use it for storing all the empty boxes I used for my clothes and things.” He answered. He takes in a deep breath before opening the closet. He yelps again as he sees the same white figure. Its back was turned towards him and it seemed to be walking forward through the empty boxes. It quickly vanishes and Arima has to tap on Tsukiyama’s shoulder to get his attention. “Did you see anything again?” Arima asks. Tsukiyama nods. “He was walking through the boxes and towards the back of the closet.” Arima takes a step forward and proceeds to pick up the boxes and place them on the floor. Hide copies Arima’s actions and soon, all the boxes are removed.

“I don’t see anything.” Hide said, obviously disappointed. However, Arima’s eyes narrow and he inspects the closet more. He placed his hand flat on the wall of the closet and knocked softly. He knocked on different spots of the wall before stopping once he knocked on one particular corner. “That’s the point.” Arima spoke up. “There’s a panel. It could be a secret passage.” At the mention of ‘secret passage’, Tsukiyama stiffens up.

_If you go in there, you can never turn back._

“Guys?” Tsukiyama whimpers. “Did you hear that?”

Hide and Arima look at him, confused. “No.” Hide replied. “Why is it that you’re seeing and hearing all of these things? Not us?”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this.” Arima said. “We usually hear and see these things together. I don’t understand why it’s only you.”

“Maybe because it’s Shuu?” Hide points out. “I mean, he _is_ his grandson.”

“Possibly.” Arima muttered. “What did you hear, Tsukiyama?”

“If you go in there, you can never turn back.”

“That’s definitely not a good sign.” Hide said. “I don’t think you should go in.”

“But I want to know what’s in there.” Tsukiyama refutes.

“I understand how you feel but I agree with Hide-kun. Who knows what could happen to you?” Arima said. Tsukiyama sighed but kept his stand strong. “Right now, I’m the only one who can hear and see these things. I might be able to see and hear the things inside whatever is on the other side of that panel.” Hide and Arima both opened their mouths slightly to protest but no words came out. Tsukiyama did have a point, they thought. But would they want to risk something worse happening to him?

“Arima-san.” Hide called out. Arima looked at him with a slight look of concern and confusion. “He has a point. We might be able to get valuable information on what’s been happening and why it’s been happening.” Arima looked very hesitant and slightly disturbed but he responded with a heavy voice. “Alright. You can go in on one condition.” Arima turns to look Tsukiyama straight in the eye. “The moment you start to feel out of control or if anything happens to you, we’re leaving the room immediately.”

“Okay.” Tsukiyama responds. Arima moves closer towards the wall of the closet. He tapped on the part that he suspected was the opening before pushing hard. It toppled back with a lot crack and a big cloud of dust puffed up from the wind the panel pushed out as it fell. Arima seemed unaffected by the cloud of dust, Tsukiyama simply covered his nose and mouth with the collar of his shirt and Hide let out one large sneeze. “Damn. Just like in the attic.” Hide muttered to himself. The panel revealed a passageway that looked like you had to crawl through in order to get inside. Tsukiyama took in a hard swallow. He kept hearing the voice at the back of his head.

_If you go in there, you can never turn back._

“I’m going first.” Arima said as he took the flashlight from Tsukiyama and turned it on. He got down on all fours and proceeded to crawl through the passageway. Hide followed soon after then Tsukiyama followed. Once the three of them stood up, Arima started scanning the room with the flashlight.

Everything about that room screamed ‘old and cynical.’ The room was medium sized with no windows or lights. The walls were stone and had grime and dust on them. There was a rusty, steel table on the opposite end of the room with a matching steel chair. The table had a single drawer on the right side. As they walked closer, they see that there is a knife on the desk. Tsukiyama’s blood ran cold and he immediately tapped on Hide’s shoulder. “That’s the knife that was used when I was attacked recently in the kitchen.”

They all remembered the incident when Hide and Arima saw Tsukiyama on one end of the living room with a trail of blood leading to the kitchen. It was very unsettling to see the knife that was used to hurt Tsukiyama, but another thought terrified Hide even more. “How did it get here?” he asked. It took a while for the question to sink into the heads of the two others. But once it did, an unsettling sensation stuck to them. The sight of the knife reminded Arima of the memory and the words he spoke.

It’s strange how history can repeat itself in different forms.

Tsukiyama started to feel a pulse coming from the desk and he said it aloud to Arima and Hide, who didn’t feel any sort of pulsing. “The drawer. It’s coming from the drawer.”

Arima reached out a hand to open the drawer. When they open it, they see a journal. It seemed to be made out of leather and age played a huge role towards its appearance. There were some scratches and tears on it and there was a thin, brown string that was tied around the journal to hold it shut. Before Arima could pick up the journal, Tsukiyama grabbed his wrist.

“Tsukiyama?” Arima asks softly.

“I can hear voices coming from the journal.”

“What do they say?”

Tsukiyama shut his eyes and frowned a bit. Afterwards, he opened his eyes and looked at Arima in confusion. “They’re contradicting each other. They’re saying, ‘Stop. Keep going. Open it. You shouldn’t do it.”

The three of them look at each other. None of them have to speak in order to know what the other was thinking. Should we open the journal?

Hide let out a shaky breath. “I don’t think we have a choice right now.”

Hide took the flashlight so that Arima could handle the journal with both hands. The two others inhale deeply and nod as Arima reaches for the journal. He slowly unravels the rope and places a hand on the edge of the cover, ready to open it. He looks at the two of them and they nod in response. With one last look, Arima opens the journal.


End file.
